OPEN Youth Trust event for myplace projects

Hi, my name is Lee Clark and I am one of the young consultants for the myplace support team. On Thursday 17^th September myself and two other young consultants visited the OPEN Youth Trust project in Norwich. We were there, along with other members of the support team, to attend a meeting of the East of England myplace projects and other organisations who intend to put in bids for round two of myplace. The OPEN Youth Trust project in Norwich is one of the fast track projects and will be the first myplace centre to be completed. When I found out about this meeting I was very eager and keen to attend and have a tour around the venue to see exactly what they have done.

To start the meeting the people from the myplace projects introduced themselves and gave us an informal progress report on their project. Therewererepresentatives from Shoeburyness, Ipswich, Stonemarket and Norwich, all of whom received myplace grants and another organisation from Ipswich who are putting in a bid in round 2 of myplace. The members of the myplace support team then introduced themselves and explained what we do and how they do it. The projects then had a chance to meet each other and network about ideas they have and also to problem solve together. It was really nice to see them all engaging with each other and offering each other support. Also at the meeting the projects had a chance to ask the members of the support team any questions they had and also to feedback any positive or negative comments to us directly in order for us to deliver the best and most effective support we can.

After the meeting had finished we were given a tour of the OPEN Youth Trust which is nearly finished and I have to say is fantastic. I took a video of some of the tour and it will be on the website very soon. In my opinion this project is amazing. There is everything in this project a climbing wall, dance studio, under 18's night club, music studios, offices for other organisations who work with young people. This allows them to work with young people within the centre and be more accessible. There's an IT suite where young people can access the internet for free and there are various areas around the centre where young people can just hang out with their mates. There's a stage where young people can watch performances, or even perform themselves. This performance area will hold 800 people sitting down or 1,100 people standing so I am eager to get back down there to see all this in action.

This project really does excite me as it is an amazing project. The only hang up I have about it is that there aren't any sport facilities in the centre at the moment. However I'm sure that if the young people who are going to use the centre ask or communicate a need for sports activities in that area the project workers will resource more funding from another scheme and make it happen.

I believe myplace is a one in a million chance for young people to use their voices and influence the myplace projects. It is a chance to change young people's lives right here and now and also for future generations. I would love every young person reading this article to have a look on the myplace website, find out where their nearest myplace project is, and get on board with them. These projects are for you and in order for them to be as successful as they can we need you all to come forward and use your voices and participate in the projects.

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OPEN Norwich Inspirational (199.25 kB 2010-07-22 15:19:02)