Southend-on-Sea City Council
We’ve been working with Southend-on-Sea City Council since 2024 through the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund. Through a series of community-focused projects at Garon Park, Eastwood Community Centre, and St Edmunds’ Hall, young people in the area are gaining valuable skills, accreditations and support to progress into positive outcomes, while helping to revitalise key local spaces, supporting the area’s growth and fostering brighter futures. A win:win for Southend.
Here’s a round-up of our work here so far.
Garon Park Youth Club
Garon Park’s mission is to enhance the physical and mental wellbeing of the Southend community, offering a safe and secure environment for recreation and leisure activities.
We helped to revitalise the youth club by redecorating the main hall, bar, and café areas, creating an inviting atmosphere for community events and encouraging youth engagement. Additionally, young people designed and built planters to improve the exterior space. This has breathed new life into the club, making it more attractive for local hire and providing valuable skills for young people in the area. We’re working again with Garon Park in 2025 to help develop their kitchen, which serves food for all their volunteers using produce grown in their gardens, and revitalise their exterior.
“I just wanted to thank you for all of the time, effort and special accommodations you were prepared to make to have him on board. It really was so lovely to see that you clearly care a great deal about the young people involved.”
Emma O’Hara, Youth Participation Worker, Southend-on-Sea City Council
St. Edmunds Hall
St. Edmunds Hall, a community-run charity in a deprived area of Southend, provides affordable space for a variety of local groups, including youth programmes, fitness classes, and cultural events. With a focus on supporting the community, we refurbished the hall’s main areas, including the stage, reception, and meeting room, to create a fresh, inviting space. This revitalisation has already proven significant increases in their offer to their local community, their breadth of income streams, their financial resilience and their confidence in their future sustainability.
“We are now offering a very well decorated and attractive facility for the local community to use. We operate in a very deprived area where many people have very little amenity space. We now offer, at a very reasonable price for low income families, a hall that is bright and cheerful, uplifting and a pleasure to have an event in.”
Sally Carr, Chair of Trustees, St Edmund’s Hall, Southend
Eastwood Community Centre
Eastwood Community Centre provides a wide range of services, including preschool, drama, fitness classes, youth activities, and events for all age groups.
We refreshed the centre by painting and refurbishing key areas, including the lounge, corridors, toilets, and stage, creating a welcoming space for the community and enhancing its appeal for future hires. This revitalisation will has already encouraged new groups to use/hire the space:
“Having the amount of work invested in by VIY has given us the opportunity to improve our offer to some different hirers & also make other improvements that would not have been possible previously. Our bereavement group is now able to use our breakout room which was decorated having previously been a storage room. Also having our second lounge decorated has brought this into better use.” Eastwood Community Centre
“The whole experience of working with VYI was enjoyable & satisfying both in the feeling of partnership between us & the mentors & the volunteers. We have received many compliments on the improvements & it has encouraged us to look at different ways of using some of our spaces.“
Venue Manager, Eastwood Community Centre, Southend
Elliott, 16, volunteered at VIY’s project at Eastwood Community Centre, Southend-on-Sea, after one of his friends was referred to the programme.
Elliott is a neurodivergent young person, who finds new experiences daunting and was lacking direction, generally feeling lost and anxious in life but felt comfortable to attend the project knowing his friend would also be there. He wants to get out and try new things, but in a ‘safe’ way. He was at risk of disengagement from mainstream education due to these factors. His mother was also feeling uneasy about his future. He is also an avid football fan and a Southend United season ticket holder.
Thanks to onwards progression support from VIY’s team and local network, Elliott is enrolled on the Level 2 Sport programme with the Southend United Educational Foundation – a brilliant next step in his journey.
