Chichester Community Development Trust (CCDT) has been successful in securing over £400k of investment to create a brand new ‘Chichester Shed’ designed to be a purpose-built space where Chichester’s young people can find the support, entertainment, connections, and sense of belonging they need. The Chichester Shed will be a space where all people can come together with a focus on young people for out of school activities and for older isolated people for day-to-day activities to come together to learn, connect and share skills. Funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s Youth Investment Fund, the grant is being announced today with works immediately underway to bring this aspiration to reality.
To be built as a single-storey timber framed space, the Chichester Shed will be constructed alongside the community garden on Keeper’s Green, to the northeast of the city. Hoped to be completed around the end of this year, the space will both host existing youth activities already delivered in other CCDT spaces, as well as create somewhere for new activities to be delivered. These may include inter-generational making projects between the ‘shedders’ and young people; additional youth groups; support for neuro-diverse and young people facing anxiety; and activities delivered in partnership with fantastic youth support organisations in the city such as the Young People Shop, and Chichester Boys Club.
With planning permission secured back in 2021, CCDT has been seeking the funds to undertake such a project for many years, but it has not been possible to bring it to life until this time. Early funding from WSCC, CCC, CDC and the Friarsgate Trust made it possible to develop the exciting architectural plans, and complete feasibility studies meaning progression to the build stage could be almost immediate on receipt of this incredible new grant.
Consultation with young people across the city undertaken as part of the application process for the YIF grant revealed the extent of need for such as unique place. Many young people referred to not having anywhere they felt safe in the city outside of their own homes and/or schools. Growing anxiety brought about by domestic and external circumstances meant many young people sought out the support of others to address increasing concerns. The Chichester Shed will be somewhere that these young people can design the interior of themselves – somewhere to call their own and feel a sense of belonging – a sense that the city is investing in their future, and creating a space that works for them. The youth voice will steer the provision that will be delivered within it.
Comments Clare de Bathe, CCDT’s CEO, “This is a huge moment for us and is a project that the whole team feel passionate about. Across our community buildings we have developed several youth-focussed activities through the years, but what has always been lacking is somewhere they can call their own. Our young people have had an upbringing like no others, isolated through key developmental years due to COVID with statutory support for their needs dwindling all the time. We see them working so hard to create opportunities for their future and are so pleased to be able to show them that the city of Chichester is behind them. Supports them. That they will have the space they deserve, and somewhere they can be proud of. We are so immensely grateful to the DCMS for this transformative funding and look forward to demonstrating how impactful their investment will be.”
Progress on the build and plans for the activities that will be hosted within it will be shared on CCDT’s social media channels and website’s blog over the coming months. Interested parties are invited to follow them @chichestercdt or look at the ‘news and noise’ pages of www.chichestercdt.org.uk.
