New space for Swindon’s young people

A new 8-week project, titled Artsite Youth, launches on Saturday 6 June at Swindon Hub to provide space for Swindon’s young people, with the aim of developing a longer-term dedicated space for them in the town centre.

Local young people are invited to come along and try out different creative activities each week or simply come and hang out. Young people will be supported to help shape the space, so that it feels like their own and is genuinely led by them, to listen to them about what they need from a longer-term town centre youth space, and to involve them in designing and developing it.

Casey Hillier, who is leading the project, said: “We want this to be an inspiring, welcoming and inclusive space and project for local young people. We know from things young people have already told us during previous projects that there simply aren’t enough spaces or positive things for them to do in the town, and we really want to help change that.”

The project is recommended for ages 12-18. A new Instagram account @artsiteyouth has been created which young people are encouraged to follow to keep up with events and activities. This will also be used to share young people’s creations and voices throughout the project, so adults are welcome to follow it too.

The project will be held from 1pm - 5pm on Saturdays 6, 13, 20 and 27 in June and on Saturdays 4 and 11 July, upstairs at Swindon Hub on The Parade in the town centre. A range of activities including zine-making, sticker and banner-making, street-theatre, music and mural workshops and more will be on offer!

Alongside this, there will be opportunities for young people to have conversations with dedicated and experienced youth workers about their ideas, challenges, hopes and aspirations for future spaces and projects, and to help develop these.

A further two sessions will be held on Saturdays 18 and 25 July, locations and activities for these will be decided with the young people during the first 6 weeks and will be advertised on the Instagram page.

Unfortunately, Swindon Hub’s lift is currently out of order which means the upstairs is not fully accessible. A crowdfunder has been launched to raise the £5,000 needed to fix it, for which every donation is being match-funded by Zurich Community Trust; the link to this is: https://zurichfoundation.benevity.org/community/fundraiser/9808

A spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry we can’t make this a completely accessible and inclusive space at the moment, as this is very important to us, but we encourage anyone who can to please donate to the crowdfunder! The quicker we can get the lift fixed the quicker the project can become fully accessible and inclusive.”

The project is being delivered by Artsite, a local community arts charity which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and has been kindly funded by a grant from Wiltshire & Swindon Community Foundation. The project follows on from previous creative youth projects such as the HOPE mural in the town centre, which was created by young people during the COVID pandemic.

For those who would like to, there will also be an opportunity for young people to talk about their experiences of what it was like for them to live through the pandemic, with the aim of improving health responses for young people in the future.

There are two further ways the wider community is being called on to help support the project: firstly, they are in need of old magazines which can be cut up and used to create ‘zines’ throughout the project; secondly, they need more comfortable, young people-friendly seating such as bean bags or big pillows.

If you have any of either you would be happy to donate or lend to the project, or if you have any questions you would like to ask, please contact the organisers by email: [email protected]