The Door Youth Project is excited to be celebrating its first full year of providing youth services in Cirencester.
The Door, a local charity, founded in Stroud in 1991, has over 30 years of experience providing quality youthwork and support services to young people aged 11-25 and their families.
Their work in Cirencester started in 2022 when the team delivered a comprehensive community profile for the Town Council.
One of the primary recommendations was a holistic community youthwork provision in the town to help tackle anti-social behaviour and provide young people with a safe space to meet friends and be supported.
Service Delivery Director Chris Scorah says “It can often be a long journey to find the funding required to make this kind of work a reality but thanks to the Cotswold Integrated Locality Partnership, we were able to recruit a Community Youthworker for the Cirencester and the Cotswolds in March 2024. Since then The Door’s small and dedicated team of professional youthworkers have worked tirelessly to engage with the community and work collaboratively with local partners”
Community Youthworker Maddie continues “We provide multiple detached patrols during the week, where we meet with young people where they are at, where they are hanging out together, rather than waiting for them to come to us. And we have youth club sessions running in St Lawrence Church hall, Chesterton every Tuesday after school.
Cirencester Town Council has also supported us financially, enabling us to work closely with Deer Park and Kingshill secondary schools, offering vital pastoral support”
The future of this work in Cirencester was uncertain but The Door is pleased to share that thanks to the hard work of The Cotswold Youth Network further significant funding from The National Lottery has been secured to fund The Door in Cirencester for two more years enabling them to offer more activities and support.
During the summer the team are also looking forward to joining local Primary Schools to offer important support to year 6’s as they prepare to make the step up to Secondary School.
In order to sustain and expand all this great work – The Door needs more youthworkers – paid and voluntary. If you are someone that can listen well, be non-judgemental and have a sense of adventure, then these are all the qualifications you need. The Door will provide the rest of the training. For paid work there is potential for up to 15 hours contracted hours during the day and in the evenings (or casual work if preferred) as well as occasional overtime. If you are interested and have access to your own vehicle (expenses payable), then visit The Door’s website to find out more – www.thedoor.org.uk – where you will also find details of volunteering.
You can also find out more about The Door by following the team on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or X
