Youth cafe providing safe, creative and inclusive space for West Bromwich youngsters

Young people across West Bromwich are being offered a place to be creative, to relax, to socialise with friends and to have a safe space to go after school.

The YMCA Youth Café in YMCA Coffee at the Clock at the main centre on Carters Green is a safe space social café for young people after school, providing a welcoming environment where they can relax, socialise and access support if needed.

It combines informal social time with structured activities and the presence of a dedicated youth worker and is designed to offer young people somewhere positive and inclusive to spend time after the school day.

Activities at the cafe include sports in the sports hall, a range of board and card games, arts and crafts, gaming and anime sessions and learning and social skills developments, such as learning to become a barista in the cafe.

It was launched in June last year and, since then, more than 2,200 attendances have been recorded, with around 160 young people attending sessions regularly.

It was funded by the West Bromwich Building Society Foundation, which provided a £15,000 grant for a youth worker.

Both trustee Andrew Kenneth and chief people officer Sophie Pazzaglia spoke about the importance of the Youth Cafe and what it meant for the Foundation to be able to support it.

Mr Kenneth said: “It was one of the first grants we awarded and it perfectly met all our criteria for grant funding due to the service it provides for young people and how it provides a safe space for them.

“Some of these kids are not able to go home straight away after school and that can be quite a vulnerable period for them, so to have somewhere for them to go which is close by is great as it becomes their safe space.

“It stops them from potentially falling into problems and that’s the main reason why we were interested in this as they’ve got the opportunity to learn about work and life.”

Ms Pazzaglia said: “It’s just great to be involved in the really early stages of a project which is so rooted in the community and just gives so much to young people in the area.

“It’s thriving and lively and it’s giving them a place to go and learn and socialise and I think it’s absolutely brilliant as they can be safe and any problems they might have, there’s early intervention to help support them.”

The project is delivered by YMCA Black Country Group, with a dedicated youth worker on site each session, offering a trusted adult presence, informal mentoring and conversations and early support and signposting where appropriate.

Lawrence Taylor is one of the youth workers involved in the cafe and said it was important to support the next generation.

He said: “I got involved as I’d seen what YMCA do and what this cafe did and I’ve always done youth work, so I started off volunteering, worked my way up and I’m now in a paid role.

“The sessions are nice and chilled as the young people can come in and play games and Playstation, chill out and relax, get something to drink from the cafe.

“I do think it’s absolutely amazing as it means the generation of tomorrow have somewhere to go and it’s very important to support the generation of tomorrow.”

Some of the youngsters making use of the cafe to hang out with friends and play games were 11-year-old Nylah Davidson and 15-year-old Nicola Walcott, both pupils at George Salter Academy.

They both said they had been coming down for a long time and said it was a great place to come and feel part of something.

Nylah said: “My friends were coming here and I found out about it and had my parents consent to come here, and I’ve been coming ever since, not missing a day unless I’ve been busy and can’t make it.

“I thought it was amazing when I first saw it as it had a lot of fun activities to do and I know that if something was happening to me after school, I can speak to one of the youth workers and they’ll come and help me.

“I like to come here and play Uno against people or sit and make bracelets and I think this is a place I would recommend to anyone my age.”

Nicola said: “I was walking past the YMCA and I got told about this cafe and asked to come down in September to what they were calling a youth club, so I started coming and I really enjoyed it.

“We come here every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and we just have fun and spend time with each other, so it’s a great environment and we like it.

“I like to play games when I come here and it’s good because they’ve also said there will be some revision sessions for us as our GCSEs are coming up, so that will be really useful.”

For YMCA Black Country chief operating officer Jo Goldie, the cafe was a place which provided a space anyone could use and provide a creative environment for them.

She said: “Absolutely anyone can use this cafe and it keeps some of them in a safe environment that they might not have after school, as well as give them constructive activities to do.

“We’ll look at activities we can co-produce with them and ask them what they want to do, such as, for example, some of our year elevens are going to do exams, so we’re doing bespoke revision session with them and providing them with the exam survival kits.

“It’s really important that these young people have a trusted and safe place to go and it has helped them, such as one young person who opened up to our youth workers about a situation at home and it was really powerful as she’d got someone to listen to, unload to and get advice from.

“It makes me emotional to see this place as there aren’t enough places like this for young people, so I’m really pleased that YMCA Black Country can provide this space for them.”