The new youth club includes activities such as pool
ANDOVER Estate is now home to a brand new youth centre designed for younger teenagers across Islington and beyond.
According to Councillor Michelline Safi Ngongo, executive member for children, young people and families, the project is targeted specifically at 11- to 14- year-olds to bridge a “gap” in youth services.
While younger children can visit adventure playgrounds after school, and older children have youth clubs like Platform and Lift to attend, young teenagers can often fall between the cracks of youth provision.
This gap leaves vulnerable teenagers at risk of being exploited and drawn into serious youth violence and other criminal activity.
Earlier this year, friends of Romario Opia, the 15-year-old boy who was murdered in a street stabbing in Archway in 2020, linked his death to a lack of youth provision. Tyler Clancy, who runs “Living Romario’s Legacy”, said there was “no clear procedure” that could have helped Romario transfer from Cornwallis Adventure Playground to Platform Youth Club.
Making smoothies at the youth centre
Cllr Ngongo said of the new centre: “We realised there was a gap. It looked like at that age, there was a gap – they didn’t have much to do.”
Before the centre opened, large groups of children would congregate at the centre of Andover Estate. “You can witness that outside here, they didn’t have any place to go,” Cllr Ngongo said.
At the hub, young people have the opportunity to cook meals together, learn boxing techniques, play video games and even make podcasts.
Cllr Ngongo stressed the importance of making young people feel valued. “For me, it is really time for us to start to change our approach to young people. Because as soon as you see them, you live with them, they’re not bad – sometimes we should just let them be – they are children, they are young people full of energy,” she said.
Lizzie Kennedy, left, and Cllr Michelline Safi Ngongo
“We need to give young people the chance just to express themselves… and have something to do,” she said, adding: “This is not just about having fun, because there’s some of them that have mental health [problems]”.
“For them to have that space, that trust, to come to a place that’s open – that speaks volumes. Sometimes they’re not speaking in schools, but they’re coming in to tell [youth workers] their feelings.”
The centre is staffed “by and for” the local community, run by residents who already know the children using the youth club.
According to Lizzie Kennedy, who has lived on the estate for 14 years and is now helping to run the club, the project has already been a massive hit with the community.
“They all come in, the boys that are quite hard-targeted boys that [youth workers] say they can’t reach – they come in and believe it or not, they were fixing up the pool tables,” she said.
