Kenilworth Youth Centre Seeks Support in Cost of Living Crisis
Ray Folarin
The Kenilworth Centre - Nub News
Kenilworth’s community activities are in danger as the Kenilworth Centre struggles under the cost of living crisis and rising bills. Over the past year, the centre has collaborated with partners to discuss its “post pandemic challenges and the escalating cost of living”, according to its 2023 manager report.
Founded in 2009, the Kenilworth Centre was originally a relocation of the Kenilworth youth club. It is now a community facility in the centre of town, which supports a wide number of community initiative such as kickboxing, yoga, baby-sitting, pop up cinemas and cafes, clothing distribution and many more.
Joint manager, Sarah McCaffrey, who has been working at the centre for over a year, said: “We want to be looking to create a more creative space for Kenilworth.”
The centre is also home for another charity, Compassionate Kenilworth, which helps people suffering with isolation and supports those struggling in the cost of living crisis.
Ms McCaffrey, said: “We deliver a lot of youth activities, including youth club on a Friday night, which is two sessions for juniors and seniors. We also offer support to children at Kenilworth school in the form of mentoring and counselling.”
"On top of that, we work with another charity called compassionate Kenilworth, who are respectively based at the Kenliwoth centre. They work with people who are suffering with isolation, struggling with the cost of living [etc].”Businesses can also hire spaces to use in the Kenilworth Centre, such as meeting rooms and group events.
“Since we’ve been here, Becky [Webb] and I have developed a lot of the new programs.” Ms McCaffrey added.
In the past year and a half, Sarah McCaffrey and Becky Webb are responsible for creating many of the programs and events that aim to bring the community together. Warm Hubs for example, is a community space running different activities everyday of the week, such as music and dinner - read here for more.
Sarah McCaffrey & Becky Webb - the Kenilworth Centre
Ms McCaffrey said: “If you’re struggling with cost of living its somewhere where you can come and get a hot meal but also there’s music and its a social event because its not just about people who are struggling financially, its also about people who are struggling to find their place in the world or are feeling isolated.”
Despite seeking to help those during the cost of living crisis, the Kenilworth Centre is far from resistant to the affects of rising bills. Ms McCaffrey, said: “For us as a charity we’ve been impacted ourselves, in terms of the increase in the rise of our utility bills, which has been quite shocking.”
She added: “This time last year we discovered that we had to completely replace the boiler so we had a few months where we didn’t have any heating.”
As a result, the centre is seeing a reduction of numbers in companies that use its space because they are finding alternative venues. Ms McCaffrey went on to add: “It’s those kind of people that we want to be supporting. So for us, it’s trying to find a balance of how to support those people but we’ve also got to maintain our own stability for the future as well.”
She stated: “Whilst our prices our increasing, hugely, we feel that passing it onto the people who are using us, is a very difficult thing for us to balance because they’re struggling as well.
However, according to the joint manager: “We are very lucky to have a lot of support in the community, which is really nice.”
“At the moment, we’re very lucky to have a lot of support tin the community, which is really nice. We have a board of trustees working very hard.” Ms McCaffrey told me.
Trustees such as David Littleford and Dr Mier who supports their Radio Abbey station, according to their manager report. Trustees help to seek out more funding to keep the lights on at the centre, such as fundraising activities that engage with the community. Other methods such as project grants and sponsorship are helping the centre moving forward.
When asked why it’s important for the Kenilworth Centre to maintains its standing Ms McCaffrey said: “There is always an issue of young people, when you get to age 13 plus, in the smaller towns, there is a lack of facilities for young people to hang out.”
“You want a list edit of independence but your parents still wasn’t safe spaces for you to go.”
She added: “There was a lot more youth provision 10 to 15 years ago than there is now.”
If you’re wondering how you can help support the Kenilworth Centre, you can go to the Kenilworth Centre support page on their website. You can also email to arrange a meeting to fund projects you’d like to see.
