Banham Youth Cafe - Pilot Evenings

Integrate YFC have joined with two Banham based churches (the Parish church and Right Hand Christian Community Church) to start a youth cafe in Banham. Three pilot evenings have now been held in St Mary the Virgin church, with a final pilot evening being held in July before launching weekly (hopefully) in September!

At the first pilot, the community police also popped in for a visit towards the end of the evening and commented on how quiet the rest of the village had been. With the exception of a couple of items of equipment which have been donated (including a fantastic pub-style pool table), most equipment was borrowed from individuals for the first pilot sessions but we have now managed to raise over half the money needed to properly equip the cafe and run it weekly for the first year. In addition to Breckland Activity Grants, we have received funding so far from Norfolk CVYS, the Sharing Good News Fund, personal donations and donations from local churches. We hope to raise the remainder of the money needed from other grants, fundraising initiatives and personal support.
As well as the pool table and cafe (selling tuck, noodles, milkshakes, danish pastries and hot drinks,), the young people were able to play volleyball and swing ball in the graveyard, play on the PS2 or Nintendo Wii or play Uno at the cafe tables. With the money raised through grants and individual donations, we hope to provide a computer games consoles area with comfy seating, table tennis, table football, dance mats and table top games for the cafe area. We also hope to run themed nights such as band nights or Karaoke or craft nights as well as all sorts of other ideas, hopefully generated in part by the young people themselves!
If you would like to support this project, visit our 'Supporting Integrate YFC' page where you can download a gift form, which can then be sent to our new office!