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Youth club aims to grow to help more young people

Tom Cookein Nuneaton
News imageBBC A woman with blonde shoulder length hair smiles toward the camera, she is wearing a black jacket. She is standing in a room with blue walls. In the blurred background, a person in a pale blue top sits writing at a desk.BBC
Emma Shiers is the director of Camphill CIC in Nuneaton

The director of a youth club in Nuneaton has suggested more communities should come together to give young people something do and keep them out of trouble.

Camp Hill Community CIC runs a youth club twice a week for up to 50 young people.

It was set up nearly two years ago after a group of local people in the area got together to tackle anti-social behaviour and county lines drug gangs.

Director Emma Shiers said it had taken time for it become popular: ''We had like two or three kids turning up, we had no money, then we got funding so we could deliver things in the holidays. We could make sure they had food, activities, trips''.

News imageA woman with blonde hair wearing a white coat, stands next to a young boy who is in a grey t-shirt and black jacket, he is holding a young girl in his arms who is wearing a cream and brown striped top and tracksuit bottoms,
Donna from Camp Hill, Nuneaton who volunteers at the youth club along with her two children Nancy and Lawson.

The youth club relies on volunteers to give up their time to run it on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

Donna is one of those who regularly helps out, and her two children Nancy and Lawson also attend.

Donna said she got a lot out of volunteering ''I just love kids, I love being around them, I think they're amazing, you see a lot of kids that are in need and it's not good. I just feel that they need a lot of help and guidance, and if I help here it makes a little bit of a difference''

It was set up two years ago after local people got together to tackle anti-social behaviour and drug gangs

Shiers is a former councillor in the area and said during her time as an elected official she was dismayed at how little there was provided by local authorities for young people.

''There was no youth provision, residents weren't using the local amenities... it was just like everybody had lost hope in the area. So I brought a group of residents together and we started a community association, from that we started the youth club''

Shiers also explained the group was looking to expand and find a permanent base instead of the church hall at Camp Hill parish hurch.

''We're trying to do as much as possible, but we're wanting to grow, get our own premises and having somewhere that's run by the community for the community, so that ultimately it's not an organisation coming in and 'doing to', it is the community doing it for themselves''.

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