Staff at new Chichester youth club say 'it can help tackle antisocial behaviour'

Lead workers at the new Chichester Shed getting a photo with some of the children at the launch.

The Chichester Shed was officially opened on Saturday, February 3.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer opened up the first new youth club that’s part of a total of £300 million going into building and refurbishing places like Chichester’s newest hangout for kids. This first round is for £90 million, the government have announced.

At the launch of the Chichester Shed, lead workers spoke about the new building. Sarah, the manager of The Shed said: “This is going to be an open-access provision for young people after school every day of the week.

"We're fortunate because we've got some great other youth providers in Chichester, who will be using the shed and we've also got our own programme that will be based in the shed. At the moment, we've been using lots of different buildings on the site, that are used for multipurpose things.

"To have our own space that’s just for young people will be amazing. During the day, it can be hired by lots of different community groups as well.” Gavin Walker, the youth lead at The Shed said: “It's a space where they can come in and relax. It’s nice because they can have somewhere that they can go and just be themselves.

“It's flexible too, from sports to just hanging out. The main thing is that young people will determine what's in there, and what they do in there. It’s flip learning in many ways where the young people determine what we do, rather than the big people telling the little people what to do.”

When questioned about whether these sorts of facilities can help tackle antisocial behaviour, Gavin Walker said: “I agree. I think it's a really good idea where basically what we're putting at the forefront is the needs of our young people. It's much better when we hear their voices.”

Amelia, 13, helped design the shed, she said: “I helped by creating a safe space for us to go and hang out when we need to get a place away from life.”

Charlie, 13, also spoke about the ideas he was able to put into The Shed, he said: “We gave ideas for the design of the shed and go to write down activities you wanted to do too.”