Youth centre stays committed to supporting vulnerable young people despite Covid cash loss

By Rafi Mauro-Benady

A youth centre at the heart of a deprived community has lost out on tens of thousands of pounds because of the pandemic, but is committed to staying open regardless.

The Marcus Lipton Youth Centre, on Minet Road, Brixton, has missed out on around £60,000 due to Coronavirus.

The lost income is a result of the Centre not being able to hire out its spaces due to Covid restrictions.

It is one of scores of centres across South London such as Caius House Youth Centre and Providence House Youth Club – both in Battersea – which have shown their determination to keep serving their communities.

Despite being so much out of pocket, Marcus Lipton staff have supported the most vulnerable young people and their families in the local community.

Since the first lockdown in March last year, the centre has received funds from the Guy’s and St Thomas’s Charity and London Covid Response which have helped to keep the Centre operational and key services being delivered.

Marcus Lipton’s Interim Managing Director, Margaret Pierre said: “If ever we are going to be needed it’s when this all ends.

“Because the negative impact of Covid, such as young people not attending school, people being isolated for long periods of time and not having social interaction, the deterioration of people’s mental health and well-being and in addition parents and young people facing unemployment.

“Also many families are living in cramped and overcrowded conditions, especially those on large estates, parents have had to become teachers under these conditions.

“People will need help, reassurance and support  more than ever to recover from this.”

But despite the difficulties posed, Marcus Lipton has adapted some of its services to being available online and engaging vulnerable young people through telephone coaching conversations and remote mentoring.

The Centre’s Youth and Employability Manager, Emmanuel Imuere said: “What has come out of this is that the impact is felt more by those living in low-income households or disadvantaged backgrounds.

“There’s a clear digital divide, and many young people don’t have internet access or have to share one device amongst siblings, making it difficult for them to attend online school at the same time.”

“For the most vulnerable young people we have invited them to the Centre for one-to-one work, including access to the internet, physical activities and obtaining free meals.”

Similar to the Marcus Lipton Youth Centre, the Caius House Youth Centre, on Holman Road, Battersea, has also lost out on income due to the pandemic.

Caius House director, Delrita Tester, 42, said the centre has lost out on around £50,000 from rental income.

But despite the deficit, Ms Tester hopes that Caius House will still have its doors open once the pandemic is over.

She said: “I believe we are at the point where we still can provide the building and I think it’s more a case of working together to provide the provisions.

“It’s a case that we may be providing the building and working with partners or groups that may not be able to afford rent elsewhere to come into our building, so I think it’s really about working together with other groups to build everything up and to provide the services that we needed it we are going to be looking a lot more at maybe the training aspect of it, how we get young people to get their employability skills up and to meet them that way and work with partners to provide the youth activities in the evening.

“I hope we will still be able to be there for the young people.”

Providence House Youth Club, on Falcon Road, Battersea, has also felt the blow of Covid-19, but has persevered and has managed to keep its doors open.

Senior Youth Worker, Esther Clevely, 35, of Clapham Junction said: “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, but I would like to say we have coped well.

“We have merged a lot of our work online, we were doing big creative arts performances, which was due to be on the 7th April, so just after the lockdown happened, so we ended up doing the show virtually through the radio involving young people in virtual recordings through their mobile phone, getting people to edit things in their homes, and putting it all on the radio.

“That was a really amazing thing to do, an amazing opportunity to have. It kept us engaging the young people, and continuing to do things against all the odds.

“Then we really continued in the same vein, in the summer we were able to do a lot more with the young people in person, we took the opportunity to do things outside, to be able to reconnect with them, to keep them physically involved in stuff.

“We work in collaboration with a lot of other local community groups and youth charities so we do a lot of joint working, keeping the kids busy, and then again second and third lockdown has been a bit more challenging, I think everybody is a bit more tired of having to adjust all the time.

“You kind of get one way of working and then it changes slightly.”

Like Marcus Lipton, and Caius House, Providence House has had to move its services online, but this hasn’t stopped it engaging with its community.

The centre released a short video detailing what it’s doing during the pandemic, called ‘Life goes on’, which can be viewed here.