The purpose of West Lavington Youth Club is:
To provide a safe environment for young people to spend meaningful time with friends and/or peers.
To provide the opportunity for young people to take part in activities to improve and increase their health and wellbeing.
To receive support from staff members which enables positive relationship building and development of trust.
It is a place where young people of all ages and abilities will be encouraged to try new things and have the chance to try new things, learn new skills and try new things without the fear of failure or judgement.
It is also an organisation which can allow staff to gain qualifications and understand more fully the problems which occur in society as a whole.
Our Mission: Our Mission as a secular organisation is to provide a safe space for young people, support them to reach their full potential and encourage them to engage in positive activities to expand their knowledge and skills.
Our Vision: West Lavington Youth Club aims to create a stronger community. Our Vision is for young people to develop their skills as well as their knowledge, grow their confidence, help to develop strong friendship groups and improve each young person’s life experience. In the end, we hope we have helped young people to grow up as valuable citizens in the community.
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Brief History of West Lavington Youth Club.
The need for some form of activity for young people in the village had been picked up by George Baker, of TV fame, who had just moved into the village in the nineteen nineties. He saw youngsters hanging out in the local bus shelter. When he asked why they were there they replied they had no were else to go and with nothing to do. George decided that he had to do something and decided to start once a week youth club in a room in The Churchill Arms. With the success of the youth club the room was soon not large enough and George moved it into the Village Hall. This over the next few years, thrived as it gave the members a meeting point and the opportunity to take part in various activities. Young trained staff were appointed to look after those who came, and they promoted a series of activities visits and social activities as well as providing a safe place to meet with their peers.
It became apparent that hiring the village hall once a week, with no storage, permanent equipment or suitable rooms, was not entirely satisfactory, and George was determined to create something better. He triggered the design for an independent building and set about fund raising. With many grants and donations, some of them very generous in and, George arranged a concert to take place in a local school with West End stars giving their time freely to raise more money for the youth club.
Work started on the new youth club site in 2005 and the new building at a cost of £100,000 was opened by George Baker on 5 July 2008. George Baker received an MBE for his charitable work and establishing the local youth club in 2007. The new building now provided a kitchen, toilets, and a large dedicated space where games, equipment, computers etc could be permanently located. The club, with two paid staff opened twice a week, once for youngsters, and once for older teenagers.
The process of completing the legal requirements for complicated lease and sub leases took some time, as did the agreement to connect the building to the Village Hall. The playing field is leased by the Parish Council, for a peppercorn rent, from the Holloway Trust, and in turn both the village hall and the new YC building are sublet separately from the Council. The building is now called the George Baker Centre.
In 2009 the Youth Club received The Queens Award ‘for offering young people a focal point for their activities and keeping them away from drugs and alcohol misuse’. The award included the trustees being invited to attend The Queens Garden Party in Buckingham Palace.
Since then, the club has grown from strength to strength. Whilst volunteers were always welcomed it became club policy that all sessions would be managed by well trained and paid staff. This worked well, except that there was always a need to raise funds.
Although the original charity name was ‘West Lavington Youth Club’ it equally included members from Market Lavington and other villages nearby. The committee and trustees do not “Run” the club during sessions, this is down to the staff. The nine members of the managing committee together with other trustees have ultimate responsibility for fund raising, and for creating policies which make everything safe and sound for young people.
So many things have happened since the club first opened. Drugs were not as widely available then as now and the various forms of interactive media and social contact devices, created a new set of problems for the club to deal with. We had to move with the times, and train staff to help with these new dangers. Also, when we first started, the country was only at the beginning of recognising a number of individual behavioural problems where youngsters needed support. Closure for two years during Covid increased the number of young people with socialising problems, All staff are now trained to recognise and support youngsters with problems over the whole spectrum of ADH/Terets.
All young people are welcomed at the club, regardless of colour, sex, religion or ethnicity and the policy from the very beginning is that attendance is free. George believed, as the current committee still do, that no member should find it difficult to come to the club on grounds of cost. Following his resignation, George Bakers position as Chairman was taken over by Eric Freeman who continued for many years until 2025. Other important founder Trustees of the club included the late Lyn Dyson (secretary for twenty years) and Mary and John Lush who continue to support the club as Trustees.
The club continues to be successful in its aims and flexible enough to adapt to the modern world and provide local youngsters with encouragement, advice, activities and a safe place to be.
