Our old club
Our old youth club was broken into in August 2002. They
broke in through the roof and damaged the electrics, so some of the lights didn’t
work and some of the heating mechanisms were broken. Then in the September of
2002 the club exit door was burned so it had to be boarded up. When the club
was re-opened after it had been burnt the over 17s were not allowed in. The
club started to get back on track and we had various workshops learning things
such as cooking, woodwork, dancing and chess.
It
was broken into once again at the end of 2002. The Television and Stereo were
stolen and the office window was smashed, the inside of the club was vandalised
and we are unable to use the club again because it is unsafe, so now the club
has been closed due to health and safety regulations.
Carly
In the meantime
After our Youth Club had to be closed Martina sorted
it so we could use another place so every Tuesday we go to a club in town called
The Granby. We get picked up outside the closed Ancoats Youth Club at five o’clock
and stay at Granby’s until half past seven. We all do different things
down there such as dancing, DJ-ing. playing pool and playing chess. We also
have meetings at The Granby about what we want to do the following week then
we all get something to eat and chill out.
Bella
Nothing To Do
There is nothing much in Ancoats or Miles Platting for
us to do. We only had the youth club on Tuesdays and Thursdays and now it has
had to be closed down so there’s no place for us to do activities. When
we had Ancoats Youth Club open we had all types of things to do, for example
woodwork, cooking, pottery, photo-graphy, painting and playing pool.
If we get a new club I would like it to be open more than twice a week and the
activities I’d like to have would be things such as: boxing, dancing, art
& crafts, pottery, pool, cooking and woodwork.
Blair
Hanging About
We hang about on the streets some nights. The places
we hang about are on the corner facing Zaf’s shop on Butler Street, on
the youth club football pitch, on the canal, at the wall at the side of Zaf’s
shop and near Woodward Court.
It is good because we meet up with our mates and sometimes
have a laugh but sometimes it can be a bit boring. It would be better to have
more interesting places to go.
Cassie
Where can we go?
We don’t have many places to go in Ancoats so I
hang around the streets talking with my mates. We are OK but sometimes we get
bored and would like to have somewhere else to go, but where? The youth club
is only on twice a week. It would be nice to go more often.
Carla
Getting our new club, as our old club has been damaged and
is in a bit of a state and all the security systems need replacing. We need
a new club to do lots of workshops and other activities as we no longer have
the facilities in our old club.
Because of this problem we needed to get a new club.
So Martina, Me and Kama, as part of the Youth Forum, went to the vicarage for
a meeting to try to persuade the people who own it to let us have use of the
rooms in there as our new club. The facilities are excellent and the rooms are
large. We are intending spending lots of money on these rooms so they will be
suited to each workshop that we have. We are all looking forward to it so we
can do lots of interesting things like dancing, woodwork and sewing etc. We
all can not wait to get in our new club. It will be a privilege for us to have
somewhere to go and something to do.
Cassie
An Important Place
Our new club is going to be an important place for us
to go to because it will keep us off the streets and it will keep us out of
trouble. Also it gives us the opportunity to do lots more exciting things such
as dancing, drama, pool etc. The new club is larger than our old one so we can
have more than one workshop going on.
Because it is new to us people will respect it more.
Kama
