Carlisle Youth Zone has appointed Stephen Mason as its new chief executive. Stephen, 46, was previously Locality Director (Carlisle) at Cumbria County Council’s Children’s Services and takes up his new post at the Youth Zone on Monday 12 December.

Stephen has worked with children and young people for 28 years and has a varied background in education and social care. He has a strong track record of improving services and outcomes for young people and has been instrumental in promoting social inclusion and meeting the needs of young people during his previous employment.

His past roles involved responsibility for children in public care, children’s social services and education welfare, and he’s hoping to put that experience to good use at the Youth Zone to develop and inspire its 1700 young members.

In addition to leading the Youth Zone, Stephen will focus on working closely with local businesses to ensure continued funding but also to develop opportunities to get young people better prepared for employment. He’s also keen to expand the Youth Zone’s activities throughout rural communities and to work in partnership with other community groups.

Find out more information by visiting Carlisle Youth Zone’s website.

On Friday 2 December, Mahdlo held a Celebration of Achievement Event at Gallery Oldham to share details of the Youth Zone’s progression to date and launch the official opening countdown.

With just over 100 days until Mahdlo opens its doors to the public on 19th March 2012, supporters and key stakeholders came together to learn a bit more about how the Youth Zone is developing and the benefits it will bring to the borough.

To mark the occasion a bespoke sculpture, donated by local businessman Bryan Smith from Lloyd and Smith Stonemasons, was unveiled by The Worshipful the Mayor Of Oldham, Councillor Richard Knowles to guests on the day. Crafted to the design of Mahdlo’s unique logo, the ‘Welcome Stone’ will take pride of place at the entrance to the Youth Zone.

Visit Mahdlo’s website to get the low down on the event and the local views about Mahdlo.

On Tuesday 29 November Carlisle Youth Zone had the honour of receiving a visit from Royalty.

His Royal Highness The Duke Of Gloucester stopped by Carlisle Youth Zone, while on a trip to the city, for a tour of its extensive facilities for young people.

As he was escorted around the building by the Chair, David Allen, His Royal Highness was able to see the Youth Zone in action as young people took part in a range of activities from climbing, dance, badminton to arts and crafts. He also got a glimpse of the new state-of-the-art radio / DJing suite which has recently been installed with the help of local radio station, CFM’s Cash for Kids project.

Listen to David Allen’s thoughts about why the Royal visit is so beneficial for Carlisle Youth Zone.

(Photos by Peter Marshall Photography)

There have been lots of fantastic things happening at CYZ since I last spoke to you. After only 5 months of opening we already have over 1500 members – this is truly amazing. It is pleasing that our members are coming from all areas of Carlisle and District. We really are here for all young people of Carlisle.

The beginning of October saw CYZ enter into phase two of its opening; CYZ is now even bigger and better. Additional projects on Wednesday evenings, including dance, drama, fashion, volleyball and multi sports and Saturday night sessions are proving very popular. The CYZ gym is becoming increasingly popular, particulary important as we head towards Carlisle City Healthy Living Week, 17 – 24 October 2011.

I would like to personally thank all who helped steward, marshall, give out medals, leaflets and goody bags at the Great Cumbria Run on Sunday 2 October. In particular an enormous thank you for those who actually ran and nominated CYZ as their chosen charity, raising much needed funds which will help towards our significant running costs.

As a charity we are dependent on the generosity of both the public and businesses and we are grateful for all the continued support.

If you would like to get involved with CYZ or have any suggestions our staff are always available to help, you can email CYZ at info@carlisleyouthzone.org or call 01228 516280.

David Allen

Around 40 guests attended the official sod-cutting ceremony for Wigan Youth Zone, which took place in mid-August.

WYZ Chairman, Martin Ainscough, was joined by Dave Whelan, Richard Ainscough (son of Bill Ainscough), and Lord Peter Smith, leader of Wigan Council to declare the official go-ahead for the project.

Speaking on the day, Martin said: “A lot of hard work and determination has gone into making this project possible, and I’m incredibly grateful to everybody who has helped us reach this stage. The riots by a small percentage of young people this week highlight the need to give them somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to.”

Adrian Speakman, Chairman of the Wigan young people’s development group; Talk, Listen, Change, joined Martin and said that he was “very privileged and honoured to be standing alongside him on what was a really significant occasion for him personally and for all the young people in the town”.

For more information visit Wigan Youth Zone’s website.

Blackburn Youth Zone’s building is well on its way to being the world class facility it soon will be – with scores of fantastic developments taking place every day.

Recent exciting changes have been the side walls shooting up and the first of the (one day!) iconic orange roofing. Although there’s still loads to come – the building is really taking shape, with an increasingly greater sense of what the fab final product will eventually look like.

We can’t wait to see what happens next – and will be bringing you all the latest changes from the building site frontline.

For more information visit the Blackburn Youth Zone website.

The Mahdlo Young People’s Development Group has been working to make sure the new Youth Zone is a really great place for young people.

One of the more recent activities the Group has been involved with is helping with the interior design. They have chosen colours that will appear on the youth zone’s walls, cubicle and flooring and are now about to start work on choosing the furniture.

The Group has expressed that they want the interior to be stylish yet functional, so are working closely with the Project Architect Mark Serventi from Eric Wright Construction to make sure they get the very best for Mahdlo.

Chief Executive, Helen Taylor, said: “The work that the Young People’s Development Group are putting in to make sure Mahdlo is a great success is fantastic; they have had a really positive influence on the development of the youth zone and are a credit to Oldham”.

For more information visit the Mahdlo website.

The Factory’s Young People’s Development Group recently visited the site of the new youth zone to get a feel for how the build is coming along.

Two members of the group Shams and Ryan told us what they thought:

“The visit to the factory youth zone was a good experience for the whole group who went. This is
because we got to see before hand what the inside of the youth zone would look like and from our
perspectives we thought it was really good for how it looked and how it was coming along.

“While we were there we all came up with ideas for what we could do in the different rooms and we were told these ideas could have been possible with the extra spaces we had. The multi-use games area was coming on pretty well. All of the foundations were laid down and all that needed to be done was to put the fencing up around it to make it secure.

The design is a great one and especially the glass cube on the front was a good idea because then people can see in and see some of the interesting activities we have on; including boxing, climbing wall, sports gym, dance area etc. The spaces we saw were really good because they were spacious so you could do a variety of activities.”

For more information visit The Factory website.