I was recently invited to meet a young man who’s leading the way for a great local initiative. Eighteen-year-old Jahshanti Wilson has been a local resident all his life and he spoke to the Messenger about the recent fulfilment of his dream.
“Hanging around when I was younger, I’ve always wanted to create a chillout space, you know, for us young peoples. Anyway, to achieve this, I set up and have finally established a group called Burngreave Young People’s Group (BYPG).”
Jahshanti and other young people who are involved in Burngreave Problem Busters have inspired this new project. Creating a bank account and becoming a fully constituted group means they were able to seek and gain local grant funding.
Based inside Rainbow House they have created a chillout space for members only. For further information on becoming a member contact the number below.
“This will be where us young peoples will be able to chill out, play pool and the latest games on the new XBox-360.We have a large plasma screen TV, internet access, also music and the latest films. Our group also has plans to go on monthly trips such as quad-biking; motor-biking; paint-balling; ice-skating and eventually trips abroad. Also inside the space there will be a tuck shop catering for refreshments and snacks.”
The launch event will take place 4–7pm on Friday 9th June 2006. At 7pm on the second floor, Rainbow House will be open to all young people to view and chill out.
This project is targeting the age group 14–25. “The aim is to keep others and ourselves off the streets, preventing criminal records and ASBOs etc,” continued Jahshanti, “This group plans to run as a yearly private membership club and will only allow members to frequent the Chillout Space. Becoming a member will also allow you to receive discount offers and promotions from agencies supporting this project.”
Zain Abdulla, co-ordinator of Sheffield Future’s Streetworx project said, “We are supporting BYPG building its capacity to deliver a young people’s centre under the banner of the Chillout Space. YASY (Youth Association South Yorkshire) are also providing this group with all the policy and procedures they will be adopting.”
For membership contact Jahshanti Wilson on 0775 690 9547. For more information about Streetworx contact Zain Abdulla on 0792 149 1540 or 272 3628.
by Rob Smith