In December the government announced plans to invest £500m in the country’s youth services – which were gutted during austerity – and create 50 major new and revitalised youth hubs – including at Docklands in St Paul’s.
Shockingly this is the first time there has been a national youth strategy in a couple of decades, since Labour was last in power.
Our guest this episode is a man who – like your host Neil – has a long history of working with young people, which he was drawn to after facing some tough times in his own young life. He’s the outspoken Ben Carpenter, founder and CEO of local youth and community organisation Grassroot Communities.
The pair reflect on the state of youth services, their own viewpoints on the impact of the deep cuts of the 2010s, and whether the government’s new plans go far enough.
We also get into the new Youth Zone opening in south Bristol, between Hartcliffe and Knowle West, this month. What are the pros and cons of these massive new one-stop-shop youth centres, compared with traditional community-based youth clubs?
And with young people in the UK facing unprecedented challenges from financial insecurity to online harms to knife crime, we ask what services should be there for them in an ideal world. Strap in for another thought-provoking edition of Bristol Unpacked…
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