Thanks to the government's myplace fund, Hackney Council is expecting funding to build or refurbish four new youth centres in the borough, one in each of the Borough’s neighbourhoods, linked to a brand new iconic building at Forest Road.

We've already built a new centre for Stoke Newington. If you haven't visited the centre yet, you can see pictures by clicking on this link.

We're currently consulting with young people who use the Concorde Centre and Hoxton Hall to find out the kinds of activities that they would like to see going on in their Young Hackney centre, and what they would like the centre to look like.

Each centre will have a full range of activities and support services available and each has a nominated specialism, chosen by young people. If you want to find out more about the specialisms, or have a look at the early plans for the next phase, click on the links below!

• Forest Road: youth leadership
• Young Hackney Stoke Newington: IT and media;
• Hoxton Hall: arts and performance
• Concorde: sports and healthy living
• Woodberry Down: enterprise

Young people's involvement in the programme

Young people have been put in the lead to plan and deliver dedicated youth projects driven by their views and needs. The Myplace Participation Group, ten young people aged 13 - 19, helped Hackney Council to assess the need for the new centres, and used their research to put together a bid for the funding.

The overarching aims of the myplace programme in Hackney, defined by members of the Myplace Participation Group are:

• To get young people off street corners and into clubs
• To change the negative perceptions that people have of Hackney and young people within the borough
• Achieve a mindshift in young people: to convince them there’s more than one path in life.

Hackney Youth Service and its partners have consulted with young people at every stage, to make sure the new centres will be well used, and offer activities that young people want to take part in.