Toowoomba will soon boast a brand new multipurpose Youth Cultural and Educational Facility next to Chalk Drive Skate Park. This facility will include the Toowoomba Flexi School, Behaviour Management Programs, Counselling and Information Services, Internet studio, 2Swamps Youth Art Group and Art space, Multipurpose and Project Space and Youth Cafe.
Toowoomba City Council worked in partnership with local young people to consult, develop, design and manage both the facility and programs and projects that will engage and encourage young people to actively participate in addressing issues that affect them.
Council has committed $250,000 to build the facility. It has provided the land and is carrying the liability for the completion of the project. Toowoomba East Rotary Club has committed $40,000 plus inkind support.
The decks, disabled ramps, landscaping and fencing have been constructed by local young people through the Work for the Dole Program. Further inkind support for the project has also been committed by young people on Juvenile Justice orders, TAFE Students and Youth Groups.
The Youth Cultural and Educational Facility project is innovative in a number of ways. The building has been located within an already recognised youth space – namely the Chalk Drive Skate Park.
Upon completion the facility will be handed over to an incorporated community organisation ‘Youn’ity Youth Association Inc’. This will actively engage local young people in a mentored management role with adults to ensure the facility meets the needs of young people and that, in turn, young people develop the necessary skills to support and address youth issues in the future.
The Youth Cultural and Educational Facility will become a catalyst for a range of youth business, artistic, cultural and social programs and projects.
The vision for this facility is one of inclusion for young people, a place to trial ideas and to develop individual and collective skills. Young people can engage with an educational framework, gain work experience through the Cafe and access career, personal and professional information in a central location.
The keys to the success of the multipurpose Youth Cultural and Educational Facility Project include the following.
For further information visit www.toowoomba.qld.gov.au or contact Darryl Bates, Youth Development Officer, on (07) 4688 6758
