Youth club is 'improving behaviour in village'

Matt Fisher, community worker at Selby charity Up for Yorkshire

A youth club that has been credited with reducing anti-social behaviour in a village plans to expand its work.

The YO8 Club in Brayton, near Selby, was set up in 2022 after police were called to deal with repeated problems near the community centre the club is now based in.

Since then, £5,000 has been crowdfunded to give the club additional space inside the centre, meaning it can help more young people.

Charity Up for Yorkshire's community worker Matt Fisher said: "We've been going for a couple of years now and anti-social behaviour is right down. We have plans to do much more."

Mr Fisher said relationships between teenagers and the wider community had improved since YO8 was founded.

He added: "We don't get such troublesome interaction with the young people and the local residents."

The donated £5,000 was used to open up two unused changing rooms.

"We literally went through the walls. We've now got almost the whole side of the building, which is dedicated as a youth hub."

Future plans include creating an accessible toilet and installing Wifi, which would enable activities such as music, drama and leadership training to take place.

The club's users are aged between nine and 17, and many used to gather in the park next to Brayton Community Centre. The free, open drop-in session was set up in partnership with activity provider Flying Futures.

There are now more than 60 young people attending the weekly sessions.

Ten-year-old Caiden is a regular at the YO8 youth nights in Brayton, Selby

Ten-year-old Caiden, a YO8 regular, said he was "shocked" when he saw how much extra space the fundraiser had secured for the club.

He said: "It was really small - then when I walked back in it was massive."

Ella, 11, said: "It's really fun. Usually, I don't hang around with my friends that much because I'm busy. But on a Wednesday (YO8 night) I have more time to play out with my friends."

Carmen said she was "buzzing" when she saw the bigger YO8 club

Eleven-year old Carmen said she was excited to see the bigger YO8 club.

She added: "Youth club was shut down for a while when the extension was being built and we sort of had nowhere to be.

"As soon as we came back in I was really shocked - as soon as I saw the new area I was buzzing."

'Ambitious'

Mr Fisher said the project was "only the beginning" for his team of volunteers.

He added: "We have ambitious plans to do more. I'd love to get to the point where we can afford to pay for a part-time youth worker that would be based here.

"The space we have is available for other youth organisations to use, to really create that hub for youth activities that Selby's never had."

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