Youth club needs more volunteers (From Salisbury Journal)

Youth club needs more volunteers

6:30pm Tuesday 21st February 2012 in News By Corey Ross

A YOUTH club which is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary desperately needs more volunteers to keep it going.

Shak Youth Club, which meets at Stratford Social Club, is for children aged eight to 18 and gives them somewhere to meet their friends, learn new skills and talk to someone if they need support or advice.

Organiser Dolly Burnett said the children love going to the club on Stratford Road, but at the moment they only have enough volunteers to run it one night a week, although they could have the room up to four times a week.

She said: “We have about 15 to 20 kids a night. I’ve got a waiting list of kids that want to come but to be honest I just haven’t got the staff to do it at the moment. I need as many volunteers as possible, the more we have the more it could be open.”

Volunteers have to be CRB checked and enjoy working with young people.

The youth club is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, although it has only been in its current home for about two years.

Children can also take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award through the club and one of its members, Liam Harding, has just become a Wiltshire Assembly of Youth member.

The children also worked hard to fundraise for a bench, which they decorated with help from social club member Tony Britten, in memory of ten-year-old club member Haydn Harrison, who died of meningitis last summer.

Shak is supported by Youth Action Wiltshire and Salisbury Youth Service and Ms Burnett said they have always had the support of the social club. “The club has been very kind to us with equipment and helping out and I’d also like to say thank you to the volunteers – Jamie Ollivierre, who is the Duke of Edinburgh co-ordinator and puts in a lot of his own time, helpers Claire Jacobs and Berni Collingson, and Winnie Manning from the youth service.”