A RECENT recruitment drive for volunteer helpers at an Evesham youth cub saw a poor attendance, though committee members are still hoping people will come forward and offer a few hour's help.

Ourside Youth Association, in Broadway Road, provides a service to young people from the town and the surrounding villages.

It was originally formed over 12 years ago by a group of young people who were fed up of having nowhere to meet and being moved on by the police, despite not causing any trouble. The group approached some fundamental youth workers and set about campaigning for better youth provisions in the local area. From the offset, the young people set the agenda and the campaign quickly gathered pace.

A derelict building was offered to the group by St Peter's Church, in Bengeworth. It was originally a youth centre in the 1960s and therefore it was ideal, despite the need for some serious work on repairs, adaptations and modernisations.

With no outside funding available to them, the young people raised the money themselves over a period of four years by continuously applying for various grants and funding. Ourside Youth Centre was officially opened in 2008 and was staffed and resourced by Worcestershire County Council.

However, due to financial cuts to the youth service in 2012, part of Worcestershire County Council was made redundant and the future of Ourside looked bleak. The pioneering group of young people were adamant that Ourside would survive so went about setting themselves up as a charity and even became directors and trustees for the organisation.

To this day, a substantial amount of the original group are still involved with Ourside and help ensure the youth centre continues to deliver the same excellent services to the next wave of young people. Some of which have taken over the reins and have created a Young People’s Committee who meet weekly to set the agenda of the Centre and put forward the wants and needs of young people.

Ourside currently builds effective relationships with young people between the ages of 11 and 19 years old and provides an array of services including open access sessions, targeted and one-to-one support to around 100 young people every week.

Activities at Ourside vary from week to week and include creativity, positivity, sporting, musical, promoting life skills, raising awareness and dealing with current issues.

There is an array of volunteering opportunities available at Ourside, both working with the young people and supportive roles. These roles include; building maintenance, gardening, website managers, graphic designers, trainee Positive Activities Workers, sporting and creative people, as well as a fundraising committee and anyone with a few spare hours who have any skills, talents or knowledge that they would like to share with young people.

For more information on volunteering at Ourside Youth Association contact Alison Hurman, volunteer co-ordinator on 07891331986 or alison@ourside.org.uk