My team recently met with Iain Anderson, the Youth Development Coordinator for the Northamptonshire Association of Youth Clubs with responsibility for South Northants.

Iain is working on a day-to-day basis with local schools, councils and other governing bodies to provide the best service possible for young people in our area. NAYC provides an impressive range of services for young people which they deliver through youth clubs, schools and church organisations.

The future vision of NAYC is to have dedicated youth Hubs in both Towcester and Brackley which will provide:

• Drop-in centres
• Support services
• Educational services
• Sports and numerous activities
• Adventures and days out
• Youth cafes with different themed events

This is an exciting development as previous youth projects had to be closed through lack of funds. NAYC is working to establish a new charity known as South Northants Youth Engagement; they will be applying for charitable funding with trustees including councillors from the two towns.

The registration of the South Northants Youth Engagement will be completed towards the end of September and celebrated with an official launch in October.

A number of our larger villages have established Youth Clubs and Iain is enthusiastic about getting more Youth Clubs up and running especially in smaller villages. Litchborough is setting up a new Youth Club and they have been lucky enough to secure finding from South Northants Council for a Youth Leader to attend once a week to run the session.  

Iain is looking for volunteers who are interested in becoming Leaders and setting up Youth Clubs in some of the smaller villages.   If you are interested in becoming a Volunteer Leader please contact Iain on 01604 499699 or Iainanderson@nayc.org

Youth clubs play a vital part in the lives of youths between 8 and 19, and I wish Iain and his team every success and offer out support in any way that I can.