Historic Lambton Street Youth & Community Hub gets a refurbishment

National World - LocalTV

Celebration of the historic Lambton Street Youth & Community Hub’s refurbishment officially opened by Northumbria Police & Crime Commissioner, Kim McGuinness.

Transcript

00:00 Well there hasn't been a lot of investment over the last 20 years maybe in youth centres.

00:05 They're very important to young people. Young people need somewhere to go in the evening.

00:10 We're trying to get young people there. The idea is with young people is to bring them

00:14 into the centre, empower them, give them activities and a positive lifestyle. We're trying to

00:19 educate them or get them ready for adulthood and that's all we're trying to do with them.

00:25 Sunderland's Lambton Street Youth and Community Hub is an award-winning organisation originally

00:29 established in 1901 and is one of the oldest youth and community centres in Europe. Originally

00:35 a boys club and synonymous with boxing, the organisation has evolved over the years to

00:39 become a youth and community hub for everyone. I come here today to see a centre in the heart

00:45 of a community for young people that has had investment in it, central government investment

00:51 through the Youth Investment Fund to make it look brighter and smarter and improve the

00:56 facilities for young people is a really good thing to celebrate.

01:02 The official opening of the new refurbishment was carried out by Northumbria Police and

01:05 Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness and attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Sunderland. Lambton

01:11 Street is currently at a historic junction with manager of 33 years Kevin Howard stepping

01:16 down and handing over to the centre's first ever female manager, Marie Mould.

01:22 You know I would like in the next five years for us to be providing more of these places

01:25 for young people. Everyone should have access to a trusted mentor away from home and school,

01:31 everyone should have access to things like the sports and the arts and the culture and

01:36 the opportunity to come together that places like this have. We're all here this evening

01:42 for an event to reopen this building but while we're here all of those activities are still

01:47 going on, you know there's boxing going on, there's judo going on, there's dancing, they're

01:51 in the gym. It's packed and it shows you that if you provide this people use it and they

01:56 need it and they appreciate it and they want it.

01:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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