Action4Youth’s new youth centre in High Wycombe, The Junction, has been a runaway success since its launch in mid September with than 385 individual young people having attended until the end of November. In November alone more than 840 individual sessions were attended.
The Junction is the result of an innovative partnership between Action4Youth and The Libraries Department of Buckinghamshire Council. Who would have thought of housing a busy youth centre in a quiet library? But it is a huge success with space being made available for The Junction and large numbers of young people discovering all that is possible within the Library and learning to make use of its services.
The Junction is an important new service for High Wycombe, offering a safe and comfortable place to go for 12-18 year olds, seven days a week from 4.00 – 9.00pm. Young people can go straight from school instead of having to go home to an empty house or just find somewhere to hang out until parents get home from work. There is a wide and ever increasing range of activities available for the young people as well as just being able to hang out, play table tennis, X box and other games and activities alongside structured sessions which include food and cooking, mental resilience, kick boxing, music studio and photography.
During the school holidays, The Junction also offers the Holiday Activities and Food programme so that young people can have a hot meal and fun, constructive activities.
The Junction is made possible by the generous support of a wide range of local supporters as well as some charitable foundations, notably including the Rothschild Foundation which has committed £300,000 to The Junction, The Adrian Swire Foundation and The Clare Foundation. Action4Youth and the many young people enjoying and benefitting from The Junction are very grateful for their support.