£75,000? That's The Way we like it! Boost for Wolverhampton youth zone

Wolverhampton's Carvers Building Supplies, off Little's Lane, will donate £25,000 a year over the course of three years to The Way Youth Zone.

The zone will be a purpose-built facility for the city's young people aged between eight to 19 and up to 25 for those with disabilities.

It will be open to thousands of city youngsters. It will cater for five-a-side football, amateur dramatics, computer technology, music, dancing, basketball, netball and a host of other activities.

It will also holding a four-court sports hall, an outdoor recreation area. There will be a kitchen and cafe area, radio booth, as well as martial arts and boxing facilities.

Henry Carver, owner of Carver's Building Supplies, said: "I'm very pleased to be involved in this project and I feel it is something Wolverhampton has needed in the area for some time.

"Jobs were created, youngsters were being kept active and actually engaging in activities that would help them in the longer term, thus improving their social and employability skills.

"Once I became involved I had the same vision for Wolverhampton and I hope with this donation The Way Youth Zone will go from strength to strength."

The centre, which plans to launch in January will become just the second youth club in Wolverhampton, after up to 30 were axed last year by the council due to budget cuts.

Development manager for The Way, Phillipa Gregory, said: "We couldn't be happier with the donation from Henry Carver and his company.

"It will go a long way in helping us progress and develop the youth of Wolverhampton and the opportunities we can provide for them.

"We trying to approach the youngsters with a softer skills sets and will be offering employability courses once we have launched in January."

The Way Youth Zone is expected to cost £1m a year to run and will be open to young people who pay £5 a year in membership.