above: Leian, Bart and Tommy work with Andy Johnson, the Warden, and me, to clear the overgrown Village Hall footpath.

Sandra Gould passed away Saturday. She was one of my first Drop-in Volunteers in 2002, and th last to leave when we shut down in 2009. She was on the Christmas Lights for 37 years, a Parish Councillor for 10, and a regular collecting for the Red Cross & The British Legion. young people are community too, funding for youth clubs, politics of youth clubs, Da Joint, Borough Green, Drop-in Centre, Mike Taylor, Young people, antisocial behaviour, youth clubs, vandalism and youth crime, Taylor Rothwell, Christmas Lights, Whitegate skatepark,  

See New Pages: "FISHING" and "VH FOOTPATH".

For those of you with wider community interests than young people and skateparks, see our sister websites at:

http://www.boroughgreen-news.com/

http://www.diy-skatepark.com/

http://www.bypass.freeservers.com/

 Da Joint, the Borough Green Drop-in Centre, was started by the Parish Council in 2002, because they realised there were no activities in this rural area for young people. It was a project that involved young people from the very start, with local businesses and tradesmen volunteering time and materials. It became a project that united the whole community, but most importantly it gave the young people ownership of their club.

One concept that has been crucial to the success is the genuine involvement of young people. There have been two young people on the management committee since it was started, and a young people's committee was set up by elections as soon as the Joint opened.

Many projects claim to give young people "ownership", but it reality it is just a bolted-on youth forum, and the decisions about the running are made by adults. By having young people involved in the campaign, the planning, the building and the day to day running of the centre, and by having a constant youth input on the management committee, the young people of Borough Green have a real ownership, which is born out by the fact that since the centre opened there has been NO vandalism: occasional damage caused by youthful exuberance and daft stunts, but no vandalism.

The youth Committee have the ability and the resources to organise trips, concerts, dances and parties, and pictures of some of these events can be seen elsewhere on the site.

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By sheer accident we seem to have hit on a formula that is good for both young people and the wider community as well. As the word of our experiment has spread, we have had a constant stream of visitors to the centre, and have given several workshops and seminars to enable other  communities to pinch the best of our ideas. On some occasions we have taken some of the youngsters who have been involved from the first day to relate their experiences.

We are always glad to show off what we have achieved so far, and to bounce our ideas for the future off fresh minds. so email Mike from the link below

This is Mike Taylor with the other yobboes..... I mean wonderful youth of the comunity with some volunteers painting the pavillion at the Recreation Ground. Mike will feature on this site a lot as he is the project manager, and youth worker.The two panels on either side of the steps are Borough Green's War Memorial plaques, which is why this project in particular scored such a hit with older members of the community.

SEND MIKE AN E-MAIL: