The Horrabridge Youth Club has been given a new lease of life in the last week following the recruitment of two new staff members.

The youth club, based at the end of Filace Lane, held a community open day last Thursday, where many youngsters who attend the club or families with children who were looking to join were welcomed to take part in a range of different activities now the club has re-opened after a four month hiatus.

Welcoming them were Janet Kendall, secretary, trustee and former treasurer of the charity who run the youth club and new team members, lead youth worker Ania Jackowska and youth support worker Drew Harding.

The club is open every Thursday evening during term time. The junior group session (for school years four to eight) will take place from 5.30-6.45pm and the seniors (school years 9 and above) will take place from 7-8.30pm.

Ania said: ‘We have lots of different activities for everyone who attends to get involved with such as arts and crafts, pool, table tennis. If music’s your thing we have a guitar, electric organ, piano, drums and a keyboard. Of course there will always be lots of food and drink.

‘I’d like to do more targeted work with some of the older children such as having mature conversations about healthy relationships and bringing awareness around subjects like alcohol and drugs. We’re looking at running a summer programme during the holidays too.

‘We were presented with the opportunity to join the club through university. I was fully on board as it was such an exciting opportunity to make a positive difference to young people’s lives.’

The centre has always been run by its own charity since it first opened in 1964, which now consists of a small board of trustees, some of whom are Horrabridge parish councillors. The garden has recently undergone a huge renovation, which was made possible with a total of £12,000 in grants from the help of an Ikea lottery grant and the Garfield Western, Bernard Sunley and Leonard Stoate Trusts.

Janet said: ‘The garden required work for many years — it was so overgrown with bushes, weeds and brambles — it had been here since first opening in the 1960s. We’ve also had some money from the parish council as well as self funding £10,000 over the last few years through various fundraisers and the monthly market held in the hall on the first saturday of every month from 10am-12pm or selling coffee and cakes and running car boot sales on the Filace Park field.

‘It’s great to be up and running again first time since October, things have been difficult since covid.

‘We have volunteers here too who always do great work, and we welcome others to join. We’d love to join forces with other youth groups in nearby areas such as Tavistock, Bere Alston and Princetown who form part of the West Devon Youth Partnership and to work on different things together.’