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ABOUT US

Portishead Youth Centre Ltd is a not-for-profit company and all funds generated ensure the building meets the needs of the young people and the wider community of Portishead.Portishead Youth Centre was officially opened on Saturday May 21st 1966 at a total cost of £18,000 and within a year the centre was expanded further in 1967 to include an all weather play area and an arts room. The Youth Centre was built as a partnership between the Local Authority, Portishead Urban District Council and Portishead Youth Club management committee. The Youth Centre continued to be funded by the Local Authority until 2012 when North Somerset Council withdrew all funding for youth work. The building is now owned by Portishead Town Council who lease it to Portishead Youth Centre Ltd who manage the building and deliver professional youth work in Portishead.

Management

After 28 years of service and commitment to Portishead Youth Centre, Centre Manager Alan Rowe retired from youth and community work in March 2019.

The role of Head of Centre and Youth Provision was taken on by Kimberley Jones, who has worked at the Youth Centre in various roles from young volunteer to Senior Youth Worker to Assistant Centre Manager since 2006.

Kimberley, alongside existing colleagues, Administration Manager Karen Excell and Youth Engagement Worker Steph Forrest make up the new management team for the Centre.

History

Since being officially opened in 1966 by Lady Mrs E Miller Bairstow OBE, Portishead Youth Centre has been a building for the whole community. The original Youth Centre moved from Portishead High Street in the town to the purpose built Youth Centre on Harbour Road in an opening ceremony that was attended by the 59 Club, a motorbike club from Paddington.

Current Youth Centre manager Alan Rowe, who became Youth Worker and Centre Manager at the venue in 1991, saw the Centre develop at a rapid rate in line with his vision for what it could be..

Alan said: “There are three main focuses which I always wanted the youth club to develop. The first is the social aspect of the club, as a place to meet your friends and enjoy yourself. The second is the sporting aspect with our outside court. The third aspect is music and arts.”

With these in mind, Alan has been at the helm for a number of important landmarks in the centre’s history. The development of the recording studio in 1995 saw Portishead Youth Centre offer a purpose built space for bands to practice and rehearse in. Two changing rooms that were never finished and were used as storage, were turned in to the modern Recording Studio housed at the venue today. The studio also saw the first MAP FM radio broadcast in 1999, before the project developed into the Youth Centre’s radio station, Radio Dynamic.

A new coffee bar, lighting and toilets were put in, in 2008, and the club closed for two months while the work was done.

The third and final phase of what was a £1 million redevelopment project was completed in October 2011 with the final extension. When this was being done the club closed for six months and ran a “youth club on a bus” at various locations in the town, including Parish Wharf, the Lake Grounds, Homebase car park and at Merlin Park skate park.

Alan said: “Young people have taken ownership of the building, which we encourage, and they feel like it is theirs; they feel like they are contributing to it. It gives them responsibility and in some cases paid employment. “I have been extremely lucky that there have been some exceptional people who have helped here in my time. “Without the help and public support from the town it would not have been possible. Over £100,000 was contributed by local people and businesses towards the redevelopment and that is phenomenal. The light of the town has really shone through.”