DURING the past six years Crediton Methodist Church has been offering a full programme of youth activities, including the open access Big Top Youth Café, one-to-one mentoring support for young people, contributions to PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) lessons at QE School, and detached youth work in the town.

Now the church is looking to the future, with the creation of a two-year programme to maintain and enhance its current provision, as well as undertaking research to develop a new emotional well-being and resilience programme for young people in Crediton.

The Big Top Youth Café was recently delighted to welcome Ron Cuthbertson, treasurer of Crediton Hospital League of Friends.

Ron called to pass on the news that the League of Friends had awarded a substantial grant to the project.

This money, together with grants from Crediton Town Council, Connect and donations from church members, takes the project well on the way towards the funding needed to employ a full-time youth worker for the town.

The Youth Café is hoping to raise additional funds for the project by involving the young people in a crowd-funding initiative and is looking for volunteers from the community to help with this.

If you have skills in video production, marketing, and social media, and enjoy getting alongside young people then the Youth Café would love to hear from you.

Please email: [email protected] .

Big Top Youth café is open for young people in school years 6 to 9 on Mondays in term-time from 3.30pm to 5pm and on a Wednesday for school years 9 to 13 from 7pm to 9pm.