'Fantastic turnout' for new outdoor youth club

An open air youth club set up five weeks ago to address concerns about anti-social behaviour in a town is attracting "a fantastic turnout".

The club in March, Cambridgeshire, is organised by Junction Youth Project, and runs on Wednesday evenings.

Aliya, 11, said she enjoyed the free food, limbo dancing and drawing, adding: "We get to see our best friends and that's the best part."

Organiser Katy Shroff said: "It's all about bringing our community together, making the youths of our town happy."

"They've said they were bored and people were saying they've been anti-social, but we just need a different approach and that's what the Junction Youth Project is all about."

Ms Shroff, 45, who has lived in the town all her life, added: "We've had a fantastic turnout, this is about kids and about them having a wonderful upbringing - they always say it takes a village to bring up a child and here we are doing that."

She added she "cannot thank people enough" for the amount of support the project had attracted in the town.

Nevaeh, 13, said she loved going along.

"It's better than sitting in the skate park or somewhere else - everything's so nice - and my parents are happy we're coming here," she added.

The volunteer-run club, funded by Cambridgeshire County Council and the Clarion Housing Group charity, is based at the town's newly-pedestrianised Broad Street.

Youngsters can try table top football, make jewellery, play pool and there are refreshments.

Bricklayer Alfie Robinson, 24, one of volunteers, said: "I want to help give back and redirect them onto a better path, because I'm on that path now.

"But it's not just about whether someone's going on the wrong path, there's a lot of parents who haven't got money for bits of food - it's all free for them here."

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