Young people aged 11-17 in Dewsbury will soon benefit from a fantastic new programme which will see £360,000 invested in the town over the next three years.
Local charity, Kirklees Youth Alliance (KYA), is delighted to have been awarded funding through the National Lottery Community Fund for their “Next Gen Dewsbury” programme.
KYA was established in 2018 in response to the closure of Kirklees Council’s Youth Service the year before and supports voluntary sector youth organisations across Kirklees .
Next Gen Dewsbury will be led by a professionally qualified Youth Worker and Youth Support Worker. New youth club sessions will be established in Chickenley and Thornhill along with one continuing in Dewsbury Moor that KYA took over from Kirklees Council in September 2024.
Each of the clubs will have a creative offer alongside regular activities, such as baking and cooking and card and board games. At the Dewsbury Moor club, KYA already partners with Yorkshire Youth and Music to offer DJ skills, keyboard tuition and music production. Young people will also be able to get advice and guidance on a range of topics, including health and wellbeing and future training and employment.
Local young people will be at the heart of the development of Next Gen Dewsbury with fantastic leadership opportunities available from summer 2026. This process will begin with Youth Activity Surveys being launched in May.
KYA CEO, Susan Greenwood, spoke about the news “We are ecstatic to have received this funding and can’t thank local shops that sell tickets and Lottery players enough! Next Gen Dewsbury will be transformational for significant numbers of young people in the Dewsbury area, and we can’t wait to get started!”
KYA Chair of Trustees, Alasdair Brown, also commented “The KYA team have worked extremely hard to establish the charity over 7 years to ensure everything is in place to be able to deliver a high-quality programme like Next Gen Dewsbury. We hope to reach some of Dewsbury’s most disadvantaged young people enabling them to reach their potential and supporting them as they progress into adulthood”.
Another Trustee, Hamza Sohaib, said “It’s amazing to see that change is being brought for young people in Dewsbury! Every young person deserves an equal chance to be able to progress, and this programme will hopefully allow them to do exactly that. As a young person myself, it’s fantastic to see this programme moving forward, which has been needed for some time!”
Next Gen Dewsbury will also work alongside existing youth organisations in Dewsbury to help them to increase their impact e.g. by helping them with funding bids and offering training. There will also be opportunities for local people and businesses to get involved through volunteering or donating resources.