Happy 1st Birthday to Devizes Area Youth Lounge

Today is the first anniversary of the Devizes Area Youth Lounge on Sidmouth Street. With free afternoon sessions on Mondays, Thursdays and one for SEND youngsters on Tuesdays, it has become a safe social space for year 7 and up to gather, and shows no sign of flailing in popularity….

I dropped in to meet some of the kids, and Steve Dewar, who, as deputy director & youth work chaplain for the Wiltshire Youth for Christ, is the mastermind of this project, as well as many others in our locale, including the mobile youth cafe and Roots and Shoots, a football club set up with Wiltshire FA.

I admit, I thought I was turning up for an adult gathering, with councillors and supporters of the project, and kids would “rock up” later, after returning home from school to change and grab a snack. Instead this was just the usual afternoon open to the kids, and as such a great opportunity to see this brilliant place in action. I could hear the merry sounds of young people enjoying a natter down the street; it was jammed in there, and I realised these kids are coming here straight from school, to be greeted by Steve and his team of volunteers, and supplied with hot chocolate and cake.

Upstairs there’s a tech space, a kitchen, and meeting rooms, but downstairs is where it all happens. Steve explained there’s limited people who can gather upstairs, and thoughts returned to me of my chat with councillors Rosemary and Jonathan last week, where Jonathan suggested the project was outgrowing the available space. It certainly appeared this way this afternoon.

Steve stressed some outside garden space would be great as well as space to run extra activities, events and workshops, pointing out they often have a number of bikes parked up on the street. For now, though, they were proud of the space they had created, and looked after it.

It’s not good to give residents a reason to complain, like bicycles obstructing the pavement, but from what I witnessed, there’s a lot worse our young people could be getting up to. Here there’s their choices of music, video games, a whole racing sim, air hockey and table football, but most of them favoured chatting over a drink and snack. There was a marvellous atmosphere of social engagement, a united demographic across schools, from Devizes, Lavington and Pewsey Vale. And in this, there was a respectful feeling where they were free to discuss matters between themselves away from the restricted confines of school, home, or dare I say it, online. Although, I suspected most of them were here to more simply enjoy themselves and socially engage.

One observation I made; no one had their phone out! A couple of girls took a trip to Light & Sound, and showed me the David Bowie vinyl they brought; I was impressed and surprised by their choice! Others freely came and went, but the most important observation was their interactions with Steve, who chatted to them on their level, with natural ease, and they treated him with the utmost respect. When he asked them to tidy the empty cake wrappers, for example, they did so, and it wasn’t akin to a bossy parent or teacher scenario, it was out of mutual respect for this wonderful space he and the team had provided, and they had contributed to with their ideas.

The general ethos might be on fun and social engagement, but I felt if the kids needed someone to talk to, they could rely on him. I asked Steve if youth came to him with any issues they might have, and he replied sometimes they do, and advice was on hand for them. But for the most part of it, it’s a safe space to socialise, and that’s what they really need most. I mentioned the stereotypical and out of touch youth clubs of my era, of how vicar’s broken pool tables and watered down orange squash felt patronising to us, but the DAY Lounge is something of their own creation, modern and chic. They democratically decided on the name, and designed the layout; it was, effectively, their space, and Steve was on hand to advise, encourage and engage whenever they required him to.

Steve spoke of the need for more volunteers as well as the idea around expansion, and of funding, where it seemed youth projects in more urban environments took their fair share of grants, yet rural areas, like here, being perceived as more affluent, therefore private investment was incorrectly assumed by the powers that be as sufficient to operate this and other similar projects. The Day Lounge operates for year seven and over, and while primary school ages have facilities supplied, usually this is the age bracket which gets forgotten about, and shoulder the blame for antisocial behaviour; but that’s a direct consequence of a lack of projects like this, or one which no one is available to help and no one wants to be involved with.

I argue antisocial behaviour is a spectator sport; modern proof of this is when perpetrators film themselves doing it, whereas in our day it was chanting kids standing in rings surrounding the misbehaviour. While you may not be able to socially engage those few ringleaders, you can take away their potential audience, by providing them with some things to do, and a place to gather and do them. The answer really is that simple, and places like the Day Lounge really are proof that they are crucial to this ongoing development.

Happy 1st birthday to the Day Lounge, a brilliant project that serves the young community well, but only served me with the dream that I wish I was younger; that orange squash the vicar would provide in my era was so diluted, and the felt of the pool table was torn! I hope that we’ll see future anniversaries of the Day Lounge, and the expansion of this amazing project.