Queen's Trust pledges £500,000 to Chorley Youth Zone

The team behind ‘Inspire’, Chorley Youth Zone, has received £500,000 in capital funding from The Queen’s Trust.

Expected to open in 2017 and headed by The Arts Partnership, Chorley Council and Lancashire County Council, Inspire will offer up to 20 activities every evening for young people aged between eight and 19, up to 25 for those with a disability, including dance, sport, art, music and media. Young people will also be able to get help towards getting a job or a place at college.

At just 50p per visit, Inspire will be a place where young people can have fun, make new friends and achieve their goals. It will be a safe and supportive community for young people where young people can be among friends and just be themselves.

The Queen’s Trust gave a similar grant to The Way Youth Zone in Wolverhampton which opened in January 2016. The Way now has over 5,000 members and is a key feature in the town.

Director of The Queen’s Trust, Nicola Brentnall, said: “The Queen’s Trust is delighted to be able to join the Inspire team in bringing an OnSide Youth Zone to Chorley. This centre will add some terrific new youth provision to the area while working closely with The Arts Partnership, long-standing champions of young people in the town.”

Andrew Turner, chairman of the Chorley Group and Chorley Youth Zone chair, commented: “We are immensely grateful to The Queen’s Trust for the kind support. Half a million pounds is such a huge gesture of support and demonstrates the organisation’s dedication to making this project a reality for all of Chorley’s young people.”

Chorley Youth Zone is a new independent charity, which will operate to the successful OnSide Youth Zones model. It will cost approximately £4.3m to build and £650,000 to run annually.

Inspire, Chorley’s new world class youth centre, has already attracted new supporters with Wigan Youth Zone Chairman and successful businessman Martin Ainscough donating £1m of capital funding to the project. The Queen’s Trust’s support further emphasises the continued commitment to the town’s young people and it is expected that the Youth Zone will have three years’ revenue funding in place by the time of opening. Becoming a Founder Patron of Inspire is a chance for local businesses and philanthropists to create a legacy for the future of Chorley. Their support and endorsement of the project will serve to encourage others to invest in the future of the town’s young people.