Youth club bus is ready to roll
A mobile youth centre and community pop-up café is up and running after raising more than £20,000 to get it on the road.
Oxclose Church in Washington raised £23,190 through crowdfundingtoconvertadouble decker Stagecoach bus to provide a cafe, confidential listening service, and workshop space for young people.
The money was raised through crowdfunding, with 28 backers contributing including £3,000 from NHS Sunderland Clinical CommissioningGroupand£3,000from Sunderland City Council.
The refurbished bus gives the church the flexibility to run its Ten10 youth work programme.
The bus’s lower deck has a café with tablets and games consoles while the upper deck has a confidential discussion area and room for workshops. It also has an external extendable awning for outdoor activities.
The church will use the bus to provide activities designed to help reduce instances of anti-social behaviour, as well as workshops on life
skills like budgeting and searching for jobs.
Neil McDonald, from Oxclose Church, leads the Ten10 project.
He said: “The project was set up to help us reach more young people in Washington and the surrounding area. We’re interested in the overall wellbeing of young people – physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual. We want to see young people live their best life.
“We realised our existing building was just not big enough, so we started to look at options for creating a new space and thought ‘why not use a bus’!
“Here we are a year later with a fully kitted-out bus."
He added: “So far, we have seen a really good uptake. On Tuesday nights, we regularly have around 20 young people turn up. We hope to take it out soon but we’re still in the testing phase and trying things out to see what the young people want from us.”
Cllr Louise Farthing, Sunderland City Council’s cabinet member for children's services, said: “Oxclose Church have done a fantastic job of raising the money for this project.
"It is great to see a project where young people can gain new skills, make new friends and gain confidence. The council is proud to have been able to support this worthwhile project.”