Youth club hopes to fill the gap (From The Oxford Times)

Youth club hopes to fill the gap

7:00pm Friday 10th February 2012 in Headlines By Fran Bardsley

Debbie Akers, who is starting a new youth club at Cowley Road Methodist Church, Oxford

A NEW youth club is set to open in Oxford’s Cowley Road in an attempt to reach out to young people in the area.

The new club, which will start on Friday, March 9, at the Cowley Road Methodist Church, is being run by new church children youth and development worker Debbie Akers.

Mrs Akers said: “We want to get this up and running and give the teenagers from the local secondary schools a place just to hang out.

“There’s no pressure on them to do anything, it’s just a place for them to come by with their mates, catch up, and have a few games of pool.”

The youth club is aimed at children in Years 7 to 11, and Mrs Akers was keen to stress that, although it was being held in a church, there would be no Christian element to the club. It is open to teens from all religious or non-religious backgrounds.

She said: “We are more than happy to answer any questions, but that’s not the purpose.”

Various pieces of equipment have been bought for the club, including PA systems, and it is planned to offer a range of activities such as band nights and discos.

The club, which will run from 7.30-9.30pm every Friday and is to be called Aftershock, will be a drop-in affair, with youngsters asked to pay £1 for entry.

Mrs Akers said: “In the past I have found that in youth clubs it has been really structured and you follow set activities, but couldn’t just come in, sit on a sofa and have a coffee for a couple of hours.

“That wasn’t as much fun for me or for them, so we want a place where, rather than hanging out in their bedroom with their mates, they can come here and do that.

“That is the gap we hope to fill.”

Cowley Road is one of Oxford’s busiest nightspots, with bars and pubs all along the street, and is packed with revellers on Fridays.

Mrs Akers said she was conscious of concerns about underage drinking.

She said: “Obviously we don’t really want alcohol on church premises so it’s going to be a case of having enough adults who are going to be around.

“There will be rules and they will have to have respect for things that can and can’t be done.

“If anything does get sneaked in we will just learn and deal with that as we go along.”