More than 500 children across Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch have received educational and wellbeing support from Somerford Youth and Community Centre (SYCC) in Christchurch.

This is thanks to funding of £115,000 from Talbot Village Trust, which enabled SYCC to develop a new training and wellbeing centre, which opened less than six months ago,

SYCC provides activities and services such as youth clubs, mental health support, and a community foodbank. In addition to its own services, SYCC has been able provide a location for BCP Council’s ‘Alternative Provision’ programme to tutor children currently excluded from school. The programme currently uses the new SYCC training and wellbeing centre for 15 separate referrals per week for 15 hours each.

Jae Harris, general manager at SYCC, said: “We rely on grant-funding at SYCC in order to provide the daily services to young people in our community, and we’re incredibly grateful to the Talbot Village Trust for its continued support. The new building has enabled us to extend our services beyond just those in Somerford to the wider community in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. Our aim is to engage young people so that we can support them as effectively as possible, get them active, feeling part of the community and ultimately changing their mental outlook to better their futures.”

Talbot Village Trust has supported SYCC with funding for several projects since 2017, including the set-up of its community food store the People’s Pantry during the height of the pandemic. This store continues to play an important role during the cost-of-living crisis and currently serves up to 180 families in the local community.

Nick Ashley-Cooper, chairman of Talbot Village Trust said: “It’s been our pleasure to support Somerford YCC with several projects in recent years, as the team work hard to bring the young people in the community together. In 2022, we identified the great need to join forces to tackle educational exclusion in south-east Dorset and the new building at SYCC is already having a huge impact on the wider community. We look forward to receiving regular updates on the workshops, training and mentoring they will be able to provide for many years to come.”

SYCC is currently recruiting for full-time and part-time staff as well as volunteers. For those interested in getting involved, please visit sycc.org.uk/join-the-team or email somerfordycc@gmail.com.