Mission

To completely revolutionalise Youth Service and Youth Provision on inner city estates. If you want to see a good example of a youth club from the 1970's - just visit any youth club today.  Youth Clubs today are nothing more than nice buildings for nice kids - when was the last time a group of nice kids rampaged down your road kicking of wing mirrors? When was the last time a nice kid stabbed another nice kid to death?

Category

Children and Youth

Additional Information

We took on a vandalised chapel in the middle of Benchill, on the Wythenshawe estate in 1996.  We called on the persuasive skills of the local 'Families', including the local pub landlord, the Taxi Co Boss, the Boss of the local Security Co and the head Bouncer,the Boxing and football coaches, together with the energy of the problematic kids of the area we developed the building into one of the busiest social enterprises in the country.  today we ar completely vandal free, we are a professional Gym, the Manchester Urban Collective Sound recording Suite, a Dance and Performing Arts Studio, cinema and many other local enterprises, we run and manage a cafe, a sport supplement shop, a hair and beauty salon and a holistic therapy centre - all enterprises run by local people from the estate. we have been included in many accademis reports including a two year study with Joseph Rowntree, we are much written about (Google our full title) and frequently host visits from other groups seeking to adopt our practices.  We are muti award winning on the social enterprise side, appeared in the Whos Who, put on conferences on inner city gang culture and pulled off stunts that have seen us feature on the front pages of EVERY National News Paper.  The Daily Sport paried us in a series of cartoons. David Cameron described us us 'the future of youth and community work in the UK'. At street level we have pulled of something realy good. beyond that we are magnificantly CRAP.  we have NO marketing, our fundraising strategy does not exist and we have a TREMENDOUS and SIGNIFICANT image problem.  Our management team provides the heart beat for the activities but does not connect on a statutory level. the police do not trust us and the local authority do not acknowledge us. HELP! if you can?