Announcing The Buildings for Young People Alliance

Over the past few months, a group of building-based youth clubs in Hammersmith & Fulham have been coming together to discuss the challenges, opportunities and threats facing physical youth spaces. These conversations - held in person, in the spaces where youth work happens - have resulted in the formation of the Buildings for Young People Alliance.

The Buildings for Young People Alliance is made up of: Masbro Youth Club; Sulgrave Youth Club; The Brunswick Club for Young People; WEST Youth Zone; Sands End Associated Projects in Action and Action on Disability, and has been formed out of a growing need to demonstrate the value, and the variety, of youth spaces.

Not every young person will thrive in the same environment. Some need a music studio. Some need a football pitch. Others need a quiet space to talk, to have a hot meal, or to just hang out. There’s not one youth club model that works for everyone. There’s not one young person experience.

As Femi Koleoso of Ezra Collective put it in a recent Guardian piece: “Some of you teach music…some of you teach them how to draw. All different types, all different shapes, all different sizes.”

Across Hammersmith & Fulham, youth clubs reflect the diversity of their communities. They offer different kinds of spaces, activities, relationships, and rhythms. But what unites them is their rootedness - a commitment to being physically there, over time, in the lives of young people.

The Buildings for Young People Alliance was created to protect this, to make the case not only for more youth spaces, but for a range of youth spaces - spaces that meet young people where they’re at and help them get where they want to go. The alliance is committed to making the case for long-term investment in youth club infrastructure, not just as buildings, but as essential community assets that shape futures.

In the coming months, the alliance will be gathering stories and strengthening a shared voice. If we want young people to feel seen, safe, and supported, we need to fight for the spaces that make that possible.