Ipswich ACYCLE project to support children in funding crisis

Samara Wedderburn said the club offered her son a "safe space to express who he is"

A club that aims to improve the outcomes and self-esteem of children has said it faces a critical funding shortfall.

ACYCLE - African and Caribbean Youth Creative Learning Experience - supports five to 11-year-olds living in Ipswich.

Organisers said they needed about £10,000 each year and were "desperately seeking funds".

The centre will not reopen after Christmas unless it receives funding.

Director Imani Sorhaindo said the after-school education workshops tried to ensure black and dual heritage children "learn and celebrate their rich heritage and culture and to build resilience and confidence".

"If a group of people don't have confidence, don't have resilience, they don't feel they have a sense of belonging," she said.

Set up in 2019, the club also aims to prevent youngsters from becoming vulnerable to negative influences.

Its website said there was "an over-representation of black young people as both victims and suspects of crime, an issue which significantly disrupts their educational attainment and wider areas of development".

Coordinators Stephanie Odeh and Imani Sorhaindo are desperately seeking funding to keep ACYCLE going

Fellow coordinator Stephanie Odeh said her own experience of growing up in Ipswich was of "not really having many people around me in school that looked like me, and that shared the same cultural identity".

She said former members of ACYCLE had been keen to "take part and give back".

"Seeing them grown and working with the younger children, we're really witnessing something amazing," she said.

Amare, aged seven, who was making a climate change protest poster, said he enjoyed coming to the group.

"I like being at ACYCLE and doing lots of cool stuff, being positive and being creative," he said.

Samara Wedderburn educates her six-year-old son Solomon at home.

The children's club, she said, helped offer her son "a safe space to express who he is, around people that are like him".

Coordinators said seeing former attendees help current children was "amazing"

The organisation has just come to the end of its funding of £8,500, awarded by Suffolk's police and crime commissioner's fund.

ACYCLE has applied for funding through various sources but said unless it was successful, the club would not be able to reopen in January.

• Charity expects to see more families struggling

• Homework club takes children to the 'next level'

• School energy costs affecting children - head

Ms Sorhaindo said £10,000 would allow them to continue for another year, and was a small price to pay for the preventative work.

"Sometimes we look at things disjointedly when we don't see the impact," said Ms Sorhaindo.

She said she feared the loss would lead to "social isolation" for both parents and their children.

"So let's actually do the protective work, the proactive work to develop those young people to be active citizens, very proud citizens so that they can contribute back to Suffolk.