Chester FC Community Trust is pleased to share the key findings of our survey covering the planned Youth Hub for Blacon.

The Youth Hub will launch after Easter with a pilot, which will run on Friday evenings at King George V Community Sports Hub and continue through to the summer holidays.

The survey invited young people, parents and guardians to tell us what they wanted from the provision and to help us understand the interest in the Youth Hub.

The most important things for young people are that the Youth Hub offers them somewhere to be with friends and try new activities.

For parents and guardians, they want the Youth Hub to be a place for their children to be with their friends, try new activities and spend time outside the home.

There were a wide range of ideas for activities put forward, including sport, arts and crafts, films, midfulness and yoga, and quizzes, with other suggestions including music creation, mental health support, a chill out area, Lego and table tennis.

The majority of respondents were in the 12-14 age group (57%) with 21% aged 8-11, 15% aged 5-7 and 8% aged 15-17.

The survey demonstrated that having an open access Youth Hub is important too, with 74% of respondents in support of this option against only 9% preferring pre-booking.

Friday (19%) was the favoured day of the week for the Youth Hub, although there was support for provision across the week and also at weekends, and the most popular times were 5pm to 7pm (50%) and 7pm to 9pm (24%).

More than half of respondents told us they would be willing to pay a small cost to attend with Youth Hub (57%) and a further 38% would consider it depending on how much.

The survey also helped us identify potential worries young people or parents and guardians may have around youth clubs, which include support for SEN childre, bullying concerns and behaviour.

The Community Trust would like to thank everyone who completed the survey and we will be sharing further details about the Youth Hub pilot over the next few weeks.

We are currently recruiting youth workers to help set up and manage the Youth Hub, with a closing date for applications of Friday 10th March. You can read more information about these roles here.

The Youth Hub will be led by qualified, experienced staff, however there will also be volunteering opportunities for anyone interested in getting involved.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please email community@chesterfc.com.