Carlisle Youth Zone

Carlisle Youth Zone is a three-storey independent building, located on the site of the Richard Rose Central Academy, part of the city’s ‘learning village’. Departing from the regular OnSide ‘Model’, the Youth Zone makes use of the Academy’s sports facilities during evenings, weekends and holidays.

Co-location of the Youth Zone with the centrally-sited Academy raises a huge number of exciting opportunities for joint working to raise young people’s aspirations and improve achievement.
Carlisle Youth Zone opened to the public in April 2011 and received its official ministerial opening in July 2011.

Since the facility was unveiled to young people back in April, the Youth Zone has gone from strength to strength, with more than 2000 members who visit regularly.

Click here to find out more about the fantastic facilities that Carlisle Youth Zone has offer.

Why Carlisle?

The city of Carlisle has faced a significant social change in recent years with over 12% (14,000) of its population now aged between 8-19 years. However the overriding perception is that Carlisle has a ageing population, so many of the views of young people in the area have gone under represented.

This combined with the fact that Carlisle has had a high employment /low wage economy, has led to poor levels of engagement for low achieving pupils over the past 25 years. The impact on young peoples’ aspirations has been extraordinary and as a result in 2008 31% of males (16-24) were unemployed, compared to the national average of 26%. This has been seen as a major factor behind increasing social disorder in some urban areas.

The Challenge

A key challenge Carlisle Youth Zone will face over the coming years will be to raise the aspirations of the city’s young people, as many have low expectations for their future and in particular employment opportunities.

With statistics showing the working age population in decline, the Youth Zone will need to break down barriers between generations to build supportive relationships, which sustains Carlisle’s future workforce.

Many of the Youth Zone’s programme areas provide a direct response to these challenges by encouraging positive behaviour, improve vocational skills and economic wellbeing for the city.

OnSide is supporting the development of strong cross-sector partnerships towns and cities in the North West and has successfully led the application to the myplace fund for Carlisle Youth Zone.