The chairman of The Den has made a plea for support as the town’s youth cafe faces a funding crisis and what he termed a “bleak” future unless more funding and volunteers can be found.
Steve Brookes made the assessment at The Den’s AGM on Friday 22nd April and renewed a call for Stone Town Council to provide the facilities at the Frank Jordan Centre in Lichfield Street as a “community activity rather than a commercial venture”.
He said that The Den pays the council over £300 a month but claimed the town council has been reluctant over the last three years to engage in any discussion with the trustees to review this.
The Den’s available funds, after excluding the reserved payroll funds and paying April’s rent, currently stands at £349. The rent will be approximately £330 per calendar month after a 3% increase is now being applied.
Trustees agreed at the AGM to hold an open session at the Den at 6pm on Thursday 28th April and invite all prospective councillors for Stone Town Council and Stafford Borough Council to come and join the trustees and some of the young people to see first hand the work carried out at The Den. Parents are also welcome.
Steve said: “In the past, the efforts of trustees and volunteers in fundraising and, more recently, the generous donation by TDG equivalent to six months’ rent, has helped us to keep our heads above water, but with the continuing economic recession fundraising has become so much more difficult.
“If only the council would realise that we provide a really useful community facility here in their premises and we would look to newly elected members agreeing to discuss this possibility with us in the near future rather than dismissing our pleas and refusing to engage with us as the current members have done.”
The Den is a drop-in facility for the young people of Stone and the surrounding area, which provides free access to the internet, pool and console games. Youngsters get involved in community projects and trustees and volunteers have taken young people on residential weekends to develop individuals as young leaders.
But Steve added: “We probably work with ‘generations’ of young people of about two years’ duration. Our founding young leaders have since moved on to further education or employment although some have been recruited as adult volunteers and role models. We are about to see the same with our second generation and now need to encourage young people to join us as a third generation of potential young leaders. The trustees would also encourage parents to come along and meet them on Thursday evening.”
In his annual report, the chairman reported that funding from the Lloyds TSB Foundation had continued into a second year which supports the employment of a part-time manager and assistant who take a key role in managing the cafe and supporting the trustees and volunteers.
At present, the Den is open after school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays (which includes a disco on each Friday) and is also open from 4pm until 8pm on Sunday evenings.
Steve made a direct appeal for more volunteers.
“The trustees would like to extend these hours and would be able to do so if the rent situation was resolved and our efforts could be focused on recruiting more volunteers. We need more people to support us in running the Den alongside our manager and trustees. It is a very fulfilling role to undertake and we would just like some people to give us a couple of hours a week and we will be able to achieve our long-term objective of being open for seven days a week.”
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6 comments
Lee Featherstone (secretary The Den)
I spoke with the Town Clerk’s secretary a few weeks ago to ask for a meeting with the new council as soon as it was appropriate. We agreed that the council would have lots to do in its first meetings and so it was left that we would be told when the appropriate meeting would be.
I welcome and believe that a designated Town Council representative on our committee would prove to be of benefit to the young people of Stone and district. So we look forward to meeting the Town Council soon. Apart from meeting council members on official council business, we are always grateful for any volunteers who can give a few hours each week to enable the den to be available to young people for more sessions per week.
Harry Brunt
I was surprised to see no reference to seeking to request the Stone Town Council to appoint a delegate to the Den’s Committee who would be able to ‘fight their corner’ if and when required and would act as a link between the Den Committee and the Counci. This was suggested at the earlier meeting and would be a way foreward. Is it now too late ? There is a meeting Of the Council tomorrow 19th May, 2011 and a request, if made, could be added to that meeting’s agenda.
Stephen Brookes
On behalf of our Trustees, I would like to thank all of those prospective councillors who attended our meeting at the Den yesterday afternoon (28th April) and for the very positive support and constructive comments that were made. It would be wrong to single out any individual as it was so refreshing to get support that seemed to cross over all political allegiances. My trustee colleagues and I did get a sense that open and transparent dialogue with the Town Council may well be a reality once a new council has been formed in the next couple of weeks.
I would also wish to thank Jamie and other colleagues in both the printed press and radio for supporting our plight
Stephen Brookes (Chairman – the Den)
Richard Stevens
As a retiring councillor, and hence having no constraints placed upon me by being in the middle of an election campaign, I take very strong exception to Steve Brooke’s comment that the Town Council has been guitly of “dismissing our pleas and refusing to engage with us”. This is blatantly untrue. No approach has been made to the Council in the last couple of years and the Council has never refused to engage with the Den.
There is a long history to the Den and it’s relationship with the Town Council. Any candidate in the forthcoming elections would do well to discover all the facts before making any decision upon the Den’s future and should certainly not be swayed by the wholly inaccurate comments made by Steve Brooks.
Stephen Brookes
You may be a ‘retiring’ councillor, as is your colleague who made a similar comment in the printed media this week. I think that both you and your colleague should check your facts before describing my comments as inaccurate – and yes – we do have written evidence of our contact with the Town Council about this very issue and we all remember a meeting at the Den with your colleague retiring councillor which he ended prematurely when faced with some real life issues by my fellow trustees who had – and continue to have – no political agenda. So, Richard, let us have this debate in public and put all the issues (and the evidence) on the table . I am confident in doing this – are you?
Richard Stevens
Steve, There’s no debate to be had. You accused the Town Council of “dismisssing our pleas and refusing to engage with us”. That is simply untrue. We have always given full consideration to every request (you may not have got the result you wanted – but that’s down to a decision of eighteen members. It’s called democracy) and we have ‘never refused to engage’.