Youth club funding plea amid 'surge in demand'

A youth club says it needs funding from local authorities as it struggles amid a "dramatic surge in demand" for its services.

The Pythian Club has run for 12 years in Nottingham, offering mentoring, community sports and other support for young people across the city.

Its founder and chief executive Ben Rosser - a former police officer - said with rising bills and more people in need of its help, the club hoped for funding from Nottingham City Council and the police and crime commissioner (PCC).

The council said while it recognised the work the club and other organisations like it were doing in the city, it was not currently in a position to provide direct financial support.

A spokesperson for the police and crime commissioner said they were unable to comment at this time.

Mr Rosser said he was grateful for local authorities' support "over the years" but securing financial support in the next few months would be "critical" to the club's future.

"We've seen a dramatic surge in demand for the work that we're doing across Nottingham when it comes to mentoring and supporting young people that have sometimes disengaged from the general, normal community practices and can sometimes get led down the wrong path," he said.

The club is currently funded by the schools it works with, sponsors and independent pots of funding that organisations like the club apply for.

Mr Rosser said he had been "heartened" that the PCC and council had contacted the club over the last few months to "understand and appreciate" the work it was doing but hoped financial support would follow.

Over the years, he added, the club had helped young people back into education, setting some on the path to employment and supporting young offenders after their release from prison.

"We've got young people that have come out of prison youth offending institutions and now leading the way," he said.

One young teenager joined the club following his release from a young offender institution.

"Instead of going down the road of county lines, he went down the lines of coaching [football]," Mr Rosser said.

He said the young man was now earning a living through football coaching.

Another, he said, had returned to the school he was expelled from four years earlier to run a summer mentoring programme for pupils.

He added: "We're seeing issues across our community with young people continually getting involved in things they don't need to be getting involved in. Knife crime is one of the main [problems] nationally."

Mr Rosser said a number of other smaller organisations carrying out similar work across the city also needed supporting "for us [Nottingham] to have any chance of getting out of the mess that we're in".

A city council spokesperson said: "Like many local authorities across the country, we are facing increasing demands on our services while having to work within tighter financial constraints.

"As a result, we are simply not in a position to provide the same level of funding support that we may have been able to in the past.

"We recognise the important work that organisations like the Pythian Club do in our communities and understand the challenges they are currently facing.

"While we're unable to provide direct financial support at this time, there are alternative funding streams available through central government and other bodies which we would encourage groups to explore."

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