Stockton's Youth Café

Written by Maureen Rigg and published in MAUREEN RIGG is a Liberal Democrat Councillor in Stockton-on-Tees on Sat 12th Jan 2008

Following the 2005 local election, the chairing of scrutiny committees was taken from labour and put in the hands of opposition parties. Liberal Democrats chaired the Children & Young People Select Committee, taking the first topic as Youth Club Provision. I was very keen, as chair, to break the mould of previous scrutinies, so our first witnesses were members of the Youth Assembly, aged 14-18. They told us that Youth Clubs were very good at providing for younger people, but less good for the 14+ age group and nearly useless for the 16+ group. What they needed was somewhere to 'chill out' safely with their friends, not a place with organised activities. Some thought that providing alcohol would deter young people from drinking illegally in pubs or taking bottles into back alleys or hedge-backs. Most of them accepted that unless there was a change in the law that wouldn't happen. The committee went to visit Youth Cafés operating in nearby towns and made a recommendation that Stockton should divert some funding into this style of youth provision. The recommendation was reluctantly accepted, but when the first one opened the Labour cabinet member was very quick to accept the praise from the young people and to take the credit!