Youth work in Colden Common to be hit by cuts (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Youth work in Colden Common to be hit by cuts

8:00am Saturday 1st October 2011 in Eastleigh By Joseph Curtis

A WINCHESTER youth group is to be scrapped due to county council cuts to children’s services.

The detached youth project in Colden Common is ending after the youth workers were made redundant by recent county council cuts to youth services.

It began working with children once a week 17 years ago and after some success a regular youth club was set up for local youngsters.

Val Evans, chairman of the Colden Common Youth Club and Youth Project management committee, said it was a shame to see the project end but that the youth club would continue to operate.

She said: “Over the years we realised the youth project needed more careful management and we set up an arrangement where the county youth services managed it for us and provided us with services but that has now gone by the wayside.

“At the moment we will continue with the youth club but the staff from the detached project were victims of the recent cuts and so we cannot continue with it.”

The project was also hit earlier this year when financial support from charity Children’s Fund was withdrawn, which gave around £7,000 to the club annually.

But Ms Evans, retired, of Grays Close, added the youth club had funding for at least two more years and that the committee would increase its fundraising drive.