Call for help to start youth centre project (From Echo)

Call for help to start youth centre project

2:20pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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A COMMUNITY leader is calling for help to set up a youth centre for kids in Southend.

Sylvia Hallett has urged a business to come forward with funding for the venture.

She says a disused building could be used as a creative project for youngsters to focus their energy and stop them causing trouble in the town.

Mrs Hallett, 67, who lives on the Woodgrange estate, said: “There’s someone out there who’s got money or may have an old building.

“There’s someone who is willing to give kids a chance and to show society they are capable of doing these things.”

She believes children could work on transforming a building into a youth centre they would be proud of.

Other ideas she says could interest kids include an ice skating rink, a roller skating centre, or a vegetable patch.

Mrs Hallett said: “The reason we’ve got antisocial behaviour is because children have got nothing to do and nobody cares. Society has done this to them. The courts are busy with these youngsters, but they don’t need to be if people cared for them.”

Denise Rossiter, operations director for Essex Chambers of Commerce, said she could not provide a commitment over the idea for the 1,200 businesses the group represents.

But she added: “Essex Chambers of Commerce is about business, so it’s in our interest to support anything that impacts on business crime. I think if we were to be approached as a business community, it would be supported in some way.”

Mrs Hallett works in the community, responding to requests from people who desperately need furniture.

She finds people who have tables, chairs and other household items they no longer require, which are then given to needy people.

She also organises events in aid of the Help for Heroes charity.