Staff at Salford’s famous youth institution are appealing for a major ‘cash injection’ now that it is at risk of having to close its doors.
This week Salford’s Lad Club announced that they needed to raise £250,000 by the end of November to avoid closure.
Following the rise in costs and reduction in income, the youth facility has been left battling to keep their doors open.
The Salford Lads Club has been opened since 1903 and has been a major support system for the young people within the community of Salford.
The club has been vital over the last 120 years, as they have helped generations of boys and girls by offering activities, sports and exhibitions.
And now with the fear of losing the building Chris Brierley, a volunteer at Salford Lads Club for now eight years shared the history of the club.
As he said: “The idea of Salford lads Club was to get young lads out of trouble, out of gangs and give them somewhere safe to come.
“When the club first opened they were queuing up outside the door.
“Over the years it became more difficult to get the numbers in but recently post covid, we have increased the numbers because we have offered more and more activities.
“We have improved the facilities for girls too.”
Brierly shared the clubs motto: “To brighten young lives and make them citizens,’ and that is still what we are doing today.”
The influence of the club can’t be overlooked, as it still has an influence in the community, he continued: “I think we have about seven football teams.
“The young people absolutely love football and that’s really well attended and really, really popular.
“We also do things like informal education with young people and just give them structured, positive activities to get involved with.”
This fascinating building draws in visitors from all over world, due to its iconic appearance on the Smiths Album, it would be a great shame to lose the Grade II listed structure.
However, despite all the history there comes struggles, as head of the youth centre, Laura Slingsby said: “The heritage and just the history of this place is absolutely amazing.
“But with that, unfortunately, comes a financial cost in keeping the building sort of in repair and making sure it’s safe for the young people to be here as well and, just making sure we stay true to what our heritage is.”
Laura continued: “It’s just growing numbers of everything. Growing numbers of young people coming.
“The issues young people are presenting with, having to think about staffing costs to make sure that we’re providing the right service for the needs of these young people.”
Salford Lads Club have set up a GoFundMe page that is being ran by, Manchester Evening News, and the club has already raised over £23,000 since the fundraiser was released on Sunday 13 October.
The team at the facility are hoping people will continue to do what they can to help, as Laura added: “We’re hoping that people want to support and contribute what they can.
“If people don’t feel financially they can contribute, then just to really spread the awareness of what we’re doing and what we do here.”
She added: “If anything were to happen I don’t think it would help the community if there wasn’t a safe space for the young people”
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