Youth Centre/Family Centre

[Clevercat]

WESTBURY Youth Centre is to get a cash boost for an £80,000 renovation. Work starts in April to bring the centre up-to-date with a brand new computer suite, art room and coffee lounge.
Six new computers have been requested for the suite and facilities to install computers in the new cafe has been provided in the hopes that it will become an internet cafe at a later date. Already a base of 150 young people use the youth centre.
Centre manager Phoebe Brazier hopes that after the refurbishment, the centre will be able to widen the scope of the activities it offers and attract an even wider range of young people.
Extra members of staff are also on the cards which, it is hoped, will allow the centre to extend its opening time to at least four days a week, ideally with the extra day falling at the weekend.
Weekend opening for the youth centre has long been cited as a step in the right direction by Westbury beat manager PC Nick Holt for remedying anti-social behaviour.
Phoebe said, “We had a local young people’s issue group meeting the other day and the young people there said that they wanted the youth centre to be open more often, so we are all working towards the same thing.”
The building is looking quite old and tired, so it will be really nice to re-do it and have a new launch of positive activities”
Mayor of Westbury, cllr Charlie Finbow said, “I think it’s a great idea and I absolutely welcome it.”
Due to the building work, the centre will be closed from the 7th of April until the end of May.
The Monday night dance project will continue to run at an alternative venue and transport will be provided to take children from Westbury to a new youth project in Warminster.
Phoebe and her staff, Michelle Slade and Paul Devlin, will be doing street- based youth work around Westbury throughout that period - contact Phoebe for more information on 01373822335, 07786961085 or via email at: phoebebrazier@wiltshire.gov.uk.
 
 

White Horse news

[myangel]

about time too.... it still looks the same w hen i was at school there for a while...before the infants was built           

[Ettie]

The Childrens Centre looks like it will be opening soon, saw a few people getting a tour
inside it this morning.  The garden area looks lovely, there can't be much if anything left to
do now ? 

[myangel]

it looked so different when i drove past today actually..... men in the front working..tidying up...... i woner how the people who have lived in that rank of cottages feel about that building there on what was the outlook from their living rooms....quite close isnt it??

[Ettie]

Should be nicer than a scruffy car park, now it's a tidy car park and lawn.

The noise might be a problem in the warm weather though.  They must have it in
stereo, Juniors, Infants and Childrens Centre. 

[myangel]

Should be nicer than a scruffy car park, now it's a tidy car park and lawn.

The noise might be a problem in the warm weather though.  They must have it in
stereo, Juniors, Infants and Childrens Centre. 

ooohhhh  joy !!!!  not my ideal place to live   lol

[Ettie]

Newspapers have been taking pictures of the centre and supporters
for their stories.
 
The centre should open the Monday after the end of the school holidays, 21st April. 

[Clevercat]

BUILDING work is now complete at the new White Horse Children's Centre on Eden Vale Road. The centre will open on Monday 21st April.
The modern, spacious facility was built at a cost of around £650,000. It will provide space for up to six babies, nine toddlers and 26 three to five-year olds at any one time, each with their own rooms and facilities. The centre is open between 8.00am and 6.00pm.
The centre has been passed to the Westbury Infant School’s board of governors who will be tasked with the day-to-day management, including hiring staff. They will control the centre until 2011 when the management tender will be reviewed, with the possibility of further stewardship if suitable.
The centre is in a secure area and has come equipped with extensive CCTV coverage. Staff are already working closely with police after youths were caught on camera throwing objects at the building.
Centre manager, Ruth Brookes-Martin, has been running outreach services for some time and will be joined at the new centre by two outreach workers, with the possibility of extra play workers as numbers increase. The nursery will be run by a private company which will absorb the children and staff of Eden Vale Pre-school.
Parent/governor Michelle Strout has been involved in the centre sine the early planning stages, ensuring that the architect’s plans were sympathetic to children’s needs. Michelle was also the chair of the Eden Vale Pre-school committee and her youngest of four children will be attending the centre when it opens. She said, “We’re all very excited to see it open.”
The White Horse Children’s Centre is one of many which are springing up around the country as part of the Government’s Sure Start scheme which education ministers hope will give children under five years old and their families “seamless integrated services and information.”
Michelle Strout said, ‘The main benefit of the children’s centre will be for parents to be able to access information to help bring up their children, and of course, for the nursery and child care. We want it to reach everybody in Westbury, it’s not just for people at the infant school, it’s for everybody in Westbury.”
Westbury Infant School head teacher, Jan Ball, said that they would be working in close partnership with the new centre as many of the children will go on to be pupils at the school.
She said, “We’re very lucky to have what we’ve got and it’s lovely to get a new purpose-built building in Westbury which hopefully will deliver the service the nought to five-year olds need.”
 
 

From the White Horse News

[Dolly.com]

My daughter goes there and it is a lovely place, especially at the back and side where the play area is, as at the old place they never had that. Mind you it is abit hectic in the morning when you have to go in and change them into their soft shoes and there are about 20 other people around you going in and out and changing their kiddies shoes as well!!!

[Clevercat]

Did notice the garden area was looking lovely the other day but was driving past so could not appreciate it properly.