History

Bookham Youth Centre has been a resource in the village of Bookham since the 1960’s. Many people who grew up in the area have memories of benefiting from the activities at the centre as a teenager. Maybe you are one of them?

You will all recall that Surrey County Council singled out the Youth Centre for closure in 2006 as part of a major cost saving exercise. Many people in the village and especially Emily Scott from the Howard of Effingham School worked hard to see that we were all aware of this closure and campaigned hard for alternative arrangements to be made to ensure the Youth Centre stayed open. A village group, including representatives from Bookham Residence Association, St Nicolas Church, Local Councillors and users of the centre, was set up with the aim of taking the Centre into local ownership. From this emerged a charitable company, the Bookham Youth and Community Association Limited

The final details between the BYCA (led by Sue Lawrence) and Surrey County Council are complete. BYCA will take over the Management of the centre from 2nd March 2009. BYCA has been registered as a Charitable Trust, which will enable a number of financial benefits to be available.

The County Council’s Youth Development Service will continue to facilitate a Youth Club on two nights of the week. The BYCA will support and develop a number of other activities to continue into the future. The young people’s Bookham Band Nights, which have been such a success, are one of these. Set up by St Nicolas Church, with a great team of volunteers, these will now come under the wing of the BYCA. An after school drop-in Youth Café was launched in November 2008. A Youth Conference is to be planned by young people to take place in spring 2009.

Some exciting redecoration has already taken place organised and designed by the young people who use the Centre. The music and sound recording area will be the next to be refurbished, following the successful achievement of a substantial Youth Capital grant by a young person.

The new Management group need as much help as possible so if there is time or support you can offer however small please get in touch with Sue Lawrence. Fund raising will be a challenge over the coming year, as will making sure more volunteers are available to help with the refurbishment, running and organising of the Centre, including the management of lettings.

The aim of the Centre is primarily to cater for the young people of Bookham. Even so there will be plenty of time for other community activities for all ages. The future of the centre depends on it being used well by all. Please get involved if you can. This will now be our centre, run by local people for all of us here and deserves our support.