We are the Youth Café based in Milnthorpe and we meet on a Wednesday afternoon in
M:HUB. We first opened in May 2017 after our core group of young people from the KEY
Youth Consultation voted on this type of provision.
At the youth café we are a friendly, vibrant group of young people who take part in many
different activities such as giant games, gaming, arts and craft, just chill and listen to music or take part in group games. We have a tuck shop that is open to all each week which helps fundraise for future activities.
Throughout the year we take part in many different village projects which help us to
remain current and connected with our community. Such as running a fundraiser and
supporting the Milnthorpe May Day Fun day. Or at Christmas we enjoyed taking part in the village Christmas Fair where we supported the Santa’s Grotto and loved helping the children meet Father Christmas. We also had a fundraising cake stall made up of cakes donated or that we had made ourselves on our baking day which was great fun! This enabled us to fund our own Christmas trip to the Roller Rink in Bolton which we all greatly enjoyed taking part in. The trip enabled us as a group to enjoy time together, having fun and making memories.
The group decided upon, planned and ran a Random Acts of Kindness Project. We asked for help from members of the community to teach us how to make felt flowers and origami flowers and animals. Once we had made over 120 pieces we then attached tags to the items saying ‘from the young people of your community. We also created challenge cards asking people to carry out random acts of kindness to others. Our aim was simply to make people smile and to be able to carry on that kindness.
On our action day we gifted these items to members of our community and it was great to watch their surprise and see them smile.
When asked what we as young people like about the youth café we came up with many different words and phrases which we believe encapsulate the youth café and what we are about. We said things such as:
“I enjoy youth café as I get on well with the people”
“Being myself and not having to pretend”
“Meeting up with friends”
This shows that the youth café has created a safe, fun space for the young people to be
themselves, which challenges them and supports their personal development.
