September sees the start of a brand-new academic year for us at Henfield Youth Club.
We will have some fresh new faces coming through the doors of our junior sessions as the new Year 3 pupils will be able to join us this month. We will also see our young people who have just gone into year 7 moving on from juniors and joining us at our senior sessions on Thursday evenings instead.
Last year was a very busy year for us here at Youth Club, with lots of exciting things happening. We kicked off with our regular Junior and Senior sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and our Poppin’ Café open on Fridays for young people aged 13 years and over.
We welcomed two new members of staff to the team, who have been working away behind the scenes to offer even more fun, engaging events as well as assisting our wonderful manager, Debbie Slaughter, with the running and operation of the Youth Club. They hit the ground running, throwing themselves into the crazy world of Youth Club and bringing some wonderful new ideas to the table. A big thank you once again to Henfield Parish Council, who kindly gave us the grant needed to take on our new staff, with whom we would now be lost without.
That wasn’t the only grant we were lucky enough to receive this past year, and it would be too lengthy to name all the wonderful support we’ve received, but we wanted to voice how grateful we are for each and every grant, donation and little bit of help. We also have some fantastic volunteers who give their time, knowledge and support to us and all our members. We’re so thankful for each and every one of them.
One of our volunteers, Aaron, even came runner up for the Horsham District Councils Young Volunteer of the Year award for all his help at Youth Club; well done Aaron and thank you for all your help! Also, a huge thank you to our Jackie who works tirelessly applying for various grants, selling donated items to help us raise funds and offers up her time to help run our evening sessions, often supplying us with her delicious baked goods! These aren’t our only volunteers that we’re lucky enough to have supporting us, so a big thank you to them all.
We’ve been extremely busy planning various projects and events for the young people and have loved being able to offer so much variety. This was made much easier thanks to the Sussex Community Foundation who gave us a grant allowing us to provide so many excellent project nights. We’ve had a DJ workshop, a NERF event, graffiti night, cooking classes, babysitting course, SEN evenings and talks from locally trained therapists around communicating with your teenager and dealing with anxiety.
We are a welcoming family here at Youth Club, so if you or young person haven’t been down to visit us, then please do. We are extremely lucky to have an amazing staff and volunteer team – a lot of whom were once members themselves! Our extraordinary manager, Debbie Slaughter, truly is the backbone of the Youth Club, she goes above and beyond to make sure we’re able to offer all that we do. She has been managing the Youth Club for over 30 years, keeping the place going and supporting the young people of the village and beyond. We feel extremely privileged to be able to provide such an invaluable service to our local young people - the sheer numbers we see through our doors each week speaks for itself!
Watch this space for new plans and exciting events for next year. Please do feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or would like to know more information about anything we have to offer. We are on social media, so make sure to keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram pages. You can email if you’d like to book the Youth Club for private events during weekends, or if you’re a business that would like to discuss running an event or project evening with us.
Just a reminder that our Junior sessions are for young people in Year 3 – Year 6 on Tuesdays 6pm – 7.30pm and our Senior sessions are for young people in Year 7 – Year 12 on Thursdays 7.30pm – 9pm. Both sessions are term time only and cost £2.50 per young person.
Here’s to another amazing year at Youth Club!
Lucy Watson
henfieldyc@gmail.com @henfieldyouth Henfield Youth Club #chillout