A new hangout spot for Timaru youth is in the works to provide a little bit of something for everyone.
Building off the back of its Saturday night events, the Skate-O-Rama and scooter school, the Timaru Youth Collective (TYC) has secured a permanent place on George St.
Having used the AMPSS 101 and Barry Butler Table Tennis Stadium buildings in the past, founder Jared Pratt said it was surreal to be able to have their own space.
‘‘It’s just going to be amazing.
‘‘It’s going to be a gamechanger for us.
‘‘We’ve really appreciated the temporary spaces we’ve had access to, but bumping in and out of venues isn’t ideal.
‘‘To have somewhere permanent that we can utilise is just exciting.’’
TYC was started in the middle of last year after Mr Pratt, who had moved to Timaru from Tauranga, noticed through his youth mentor work at local schools there was more that could be done to help Timaru youth.
‘‘Working with young people around the city we saw a gap.
‘‘We could see that kids who don’t do sport or aren’t into the drama stuff seem to be at a loose end and just kicking around the street.
‘‘We just really wondered whether having somewhere to go and a place to call their own would be a good move.
‘‘So we just started looking into it and here we are.’’
The vision for the new space was to give any young person in town a place where they could feel safe, valued and be themselves.
‘‘We want to provide something that doesn’t come with too much programming.
‘‘It will just be a place that they can utilise for their own gain and not be stuck on a street corner.
‘‘A lot of life for young people can be structured, which is important, but maybe a place to be unstructured while still supervised might be appealing.’’
Mr Pratt hoped to implement an after-school drop-off service at the new location which would provide food, free internet, and traditional games such as pool, basketball and table tennis.
He was also keen to set up a space for young musicians to be able to come and perform.
With the new space, TYC was after any support the community would be happy to provide.
‘‘We’d love assistance with financing the lease on the building.
‘‘We lease a carpark, we have a van that we run around town.
‘‘There are a couple things with that we’d love help with.
‘‘We need to put up some signage around the building.
‘‘We’d love to have some artwork done amongst a lot of more practical building things as well.
‘‘If people want to help us out that would be fantastic and much appreciated because we run on vapour.
‘‘One of the non-negotiables for us is making things free and accessible and to do that we need support.’’
The goal was to have the space ready to go by next Saturday, he said.
Mr Pratt can be contacted on 027 325-7447 by anyone wishing to be involved or learn more.
