Myplace Support Team

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myplace

myplace is a multi-million pound government programme designed to make great places for young people to go.

This £270 million programme aims to create world-class facilities across England, including some of the most disadvantaged communities. Click here to find out more about the myplace programme.

The DCSF and BIG appointed the myplace support team to offer free services to projects involved in the myplace programme. We can help with building advice, project management, developing leading practice, and in many other areas.

You can find out more about the myplace support team by clicking here.

Projects in your area...

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The map shows where to find the myplace projects approved so far.

There are 21 Fast-track and 41 Standard Track myplace projects throughout England. You can find out a bit more about projects by clicking on the map.

Click a Region to see a list of projects funded by myplace.

And the winner is...Lucy Grange with Showstopper!

myplace competition winner has a bright future in photography

It's clear that Lucy Grange is a deserving winner of the myplace photo competition, and not just because she'll be using her prize digital SLR camera to take more brilliant band photos.

First of all, she's only been interested in photography since her whole family took it up four years ago:

"In the summer of 2006 my grandfather passed away and dad got his camera, so my family all joined a camera club."

Lucy and her brother enjoyed their new hobby so much, they both decided to turn photography into a career:

"My brother and I are both doing camera courses. I'm studying for my BA (Hons) Degree at the Cleveland College of Art and Deign in Hartlepool."

Lucy has two years left in her degree, and although she hasn't decided what she wants to do yet, she's keen to get as much work experience as she can.

Mike Young, project manager at the Northern Lights Academy in Hartlepool, encouraged her to enter photography competitions, and myplace have been the first to recognise her talent - this is the first competition she's won.

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Latest News

Life as a Young Consultant: What a privilege to be given the opportunity to work on a team so heavily involved in changing the futures of young people.

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BBC holding open auditions for new series of The Cut: For anyone who caught the first series of The Cut then you'll know how good it was. And other people obviously thought so too, because the BBC has commissioned a second series.

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Government Launches Youth Engagement Website: A website has been launched to enable young people access to funding, information, and youth engagement opportunities.

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Prime Minister to consider lowering voting age to 16: The Prime Minister has said he would support lowering the voting age to 16 but only if significant improvements were made to citizenship education.

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Promoting positive activities among young people: An online application has been launched to give young people information about positive activities.

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Young Leaders to be recruited for 2012 Olympic Games: The 2012 London Olympics organisers are preparing to recruit 100 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in the UK for specialist training. The goal is to produce ‘young leaders' to promote Olympic-based activities in their area and to run voluntary activities during the London 2012 Games.

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Social enterprises to benefit from £500,000 grant: A loan fund helping social enterprises throughout England has received a £500,000 boost to North West organisations struggling to obtain funding in the current economic climate.

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FREE Youth participation event: The Lighthouse, Wolverhampton
Tuesday 16th February 2010
10.30am - 1.30pm

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Calling all groups!: We are looking for amateur music and dance groups to perform short sets as part of a Big Busk! We need adults, youth groups, music, dance groups of all kinds.

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Oldham teen pursues architecture dreams: A talented teenager is on track for a career in architecture after helping to design a new £5m youth centre set to open in the heart of Oldham.

Afrah Qureshi is one of 45 young people who have been working with professional architects to create a design blueprint for Oldham's new super Youth Zone that has received cash from the Government's myplace fund.

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My time as a Young Consultant: It's kind of scary when I think that it's been 12 months since last January, and it's even scarier when I know that during that time I've been doing so many interesting things all over the country as a Young Consultant. Well there won't be a 13th for me as I hang up my myplace Support Team polo-shirt for the last time on the 31st, but looking back, I wonder where exactly did the time go?
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No time like the present: Marketing to young people is a lot like buying birthday presents. If you're a marketing professional or you understand young people well, you may feel that you can make educated guesses and be pretty sure of success. But to eliminate all doubt you should ask the young people what they want. Find out more about Streetscape's marketing toolkit and how it can help you market your project to young people.

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Haltons The Buzz project engaging young people with disabilities: Following on from our in-depth guide to creating a myplace project that engaged young people with learning difficulties and disabilities, we have spoken to The Buzz project in Halton, Merseyside to see how they have gone about it and what advice they would give to others. They have shown that nothing should be too much trouble and even the smallest things can make a massive difference.

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Gang fears put off young people from accessing youth facilities: Young people unlucky enough to live in 'gang areas' are being prevented from accessing youth facilities, according to a recent study.

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Online survey to discover best ways of involving young people in tackling climate change: The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have produced an online survey to help find the most effective ways of involving young people in the battle against climate change.

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Union leader urges parties to make youth service statutory: The leader of the Community and Youth Workers' Union (CWYU) has called for political parties to make youth service statutory to protect them from harmful local authority budget cuts.

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Youth Workers recognised in New Year’s Honours: A number of youth workers and youth justice workers have been named in the Queen's annual New Year's Honours List.

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UK City of Culture - Get your myplace project involved: Cast your minds all the way back to 2008 and you'll remember that Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture. It was hugely celebrated in and around the city and brought in a massive amount of interest, revenue and exposure. And this is what the UK City of Culture could do for you.

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Different and exciting workshops available for your youth centre: It is not always easy to think up fresh and exciting ideas to keep young people entertained, and unless you do their interest can easily wane. So if you're running out of ideas or just fancy doing something a little different then Spearfish could be just what you are looking for.

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Government plan to help out of work youths with big cash injection: The Government has pledged to pump £300m into tackling youth unemployment.

The new white paper, launched by Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper, sets out a number of schemes and ideas that will hopefully get thousands of unemployed youngsters into work or training.

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Latest Events

Wed, Apr 28th, @10:00am - 04:00PM
Marketing with Streetscape

Watch the videos!

Document Library

library

Find everything you need to get your project up and running.

Got something you want to tell everyone about? Why not tell us and we'll pass it on.

Click Here to see our latest videos!

Case Studies

Westfield Folk House - result of a structured programme for development

Objectives: A scheme to transform Westfield Folk House Young People's Centre in Mansfield has won a £5 million fmyplace grant. This case study shows how the project developed from a logical and well structured plan to boost youth provision following years of under-investment. Successfully involving young people in planning and decision making has played a major role in this. Read more...

Bolton Lads and Girls Club is a renowned youth social club in Bolton, Lancashire.

It was set up in 1889 to provide a safe place for young lads, particularly those working in the mills, to enjoy leisure activities. boltonbuilding

Over the next century the club grew and grew and began letting girls in from 1991. After further development it was decided that the original 19^th century building could be stretched no more and needed updating.

This case study highlights the work done by Islington Council in securing local buy-in and agreement to a forward strategy for youth facilities. This allowed them to engage over 3500 stakeholders and create a compelling case for change that resulted in an overarching strategy for young people aged 11-19. islington_logo

Young Peoples Production Company
Boclair Academy, Glasgow

Boclair Academy is a secondary school in Bearsden; a small commuting town three miles north of Glasgow. In 2005 the school got funding from the Scottish Arts Council through a bid by the local authority (East Dunbartonshire Council) to develop a purpose-built digital film studio on the school campus.

“The investment Pegasus will make in young people individually and the benefits young people will gain as a member of the group will help them develop responsible attitudes, encourage them to take an active role in their community and act as role models for their peers and other young people.”
Euton Daley, Artistic Director, Pegasus Theatre

At Pegasus, we present exciting contemporary dance and theatre work from all over the world, made by both young people and professional artists. We aim for all our activities to be both accessible and affordable.
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The Salmon Youth Centre, known as Salmon, is a Christian-run project that seeks to work with young people of all faiths and none. It is located in Bermondsey, London. Their focus is youth work, an extended youth centre; voluntary activity in the leisure time of young people that helps them move along a pathway from apathy through involvement to engagement. salmonyouthcentre
Salmon has been awarded cash from myplace for a one-year project to complete an extension to the pre-existing youth facility, which will cost just over £1.1 million.

Inspirationals

myplace Mansfield

On his first visit to Westfield Folk House, the Grade II listed building which is currently being transformed into a myplace for Mansfield, architect Rudi Marecki spotted some graffiti.

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myplace Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The thing about myplace, and all new buildings in fact, is that the really good ones tend not to spring up overnight. World-class buildings need time. You just have to be patient.

myplace_havering_1

myplace Havering

"It's like that music venue in Australia," says Charlotte, as she pours over a book on architecture, with page after page of beautifully photographed buildings. It turns out that she's referring to the Sydney Opera House.

nicoleburke When Nicole Burke addressed the Blackpool business community at the Pleasure Beach at the end of the Knowsley and Blackpool ambassadors event, her audience was gripped. Nicole talked about what myplace meant for the young people of Blackpool, and people immediately wanted to get involved. Nicole made it sound like fun. People started to think of offering help in ways they hadn't thought of before. Good communication sparks creativity in all of us.

jenna_ambassadors

myplace Knowsley
"Bring a buddy for a bacon butty"

It's not your run-of-the-mill recruitment ad, is it? But then, working with the Ourplace Forum in Knowsley isn't your run-of-the-mill kind of job.

myplace Leicester
Miracles do still happen

There's a newspaper cutting stuck on the wall outside one of the dressing rooms in the Leicester Haymarket Theatre. Written by Sheridan Morley in August 2004, and published in the Daily Express, it talks about the Haymarket's performance starring Ronni Ancona. "Singin' In The Rain that reigns supreme," is how the glowing review begins. It was just one of many glowing reviews for the myriad musicals staged in this theatre.

carlisle_youth_zone1 As part of my role as a young consultant I visit myplace projects to see how they are involving young people. There have been a number that have stood out and impressed me for a variety of different reasons, however one in particular that I found stood out was the myplace project in Carlisle. This project has involved young people from the beginning, sending them to leading youth centres in and around London to find out what they want in their centre and involving them in the design process.

myplace Hartlepool
Hartlepool's Got Talent

Hartlepool's got talent. Loads of it. So much talent in fact, that the town recently held not one talent contest, but two: Hartlepool's Got Talent and Hartlepool Has Talent.

Beth Marshall, a key young person in the myplace team, who has a big talent for guitar playing, singing, and doing cover versions of Jack Johnson and The Beatles, lights up when she talks about the excitement behind the scenes at Hartlepool Has Talent.

myplace Bristol
No Height Restrictions

"Do you have to be a certain age?" The question comes from the audience, from a six-year-old boy called Adam. We're in a dramatically lit, makeshift auditorium in Bristol's former Bridewell Fire Station, in the heart of the city. It's not a question that anyone else has thought of. But Adam has a point. It's a good question to ask. Because at the moment, he's too young for myplace. When he gets his answer, "13-19", he realises that he will have to wait a few years - seven, to be precise.

myplace Middlesbrough
"The new generation leading regeneration."

15-year-old John Galbraith, one of the 831-strong Middlesbrough myplace team

The Custom House, standing in the shadow of the Transporter Bridge - the symbol of Middlesbrough which straddles the River Tees - is a building which triggers strong emotions.