We currently run youth clubs in three locations:

• BEECHDALE YOUTH CLUB in Beechdale Lifelong Learning Centre, Stephenson Square, Beechdale, Walsall, WS2 7DY
• DUDLEY FIELDS YOUTH CLUB in Dudley Fields Youth Centre, Sneyd Hall Road, Dudley Fields, Walsall, WS3 2NN
• THE LOFT YOUTH CLUB above The Hive Community Hub, 28 The Square, Lichfield Road, Willenhall, WV12 5EA. The Loft Youth Club is situated above the Hive Community Hub and can be accessed by the blue gate at the side of Greggs.

There are three sessions for three different age groups during the week in each of the locations:

• BEECHDALE YOUTH CLUB
• DUDLEY FIELDS YOUTH CLUB
• THE LOFT YOUTH CLUB

You need to be 8 years old to start attending the Youth Club.

We do not work with under 8 years old because of the fact that our Youth Club is not registered with Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills). Most organisations who provide out of school activities without supervision from parent/carer in attendance to under 8 years old are required to register with Ofsted and comply with the specific regulations.

Although all children and young people are welcome to attend our Youth Clubs and we always try to do our best to meet their needs, sometimes we might not be able to provide the support that the young person needs. We are not able to offer specialist and one to one support. Youth staff are not allowed to administrate medication.

If you have any question specific to a young person attending, please contact our Youth Coordinator.

All our three centres offer disabled access.

BEECHDALE
There is free parking on Stephenson Square just in front of the centre.
DUDLEY FIELDS
Parking is permitted on Sneyd Hall Rd. Please park in designated spaces and not on grass areas. Please ensure that your vehicle is parked in a designated area and it is not parked where it will block in other vehicles or is obstructing the entrance/exit.
THE LOFT
There are parking spaces in the front and at the rear of the New Invention Square and The Loft Youth Club. Please do not use the parking of the Indian Restaurant Tamaris that is located opposite the Youth Club. Please ensure that your vehicle is not parked where it will block in other vehicles or is obstructing the entrance/exit.

Some facilities vary depending on the location. Beechdale Youth Club has access to the sports hall where sports activities like football, badminton, netball, dodge ball and even Zorb balls take place. The Loft Youth Club offers separate Beauty Room and the UV Room. Dudley Fields has its own small garden space in the back.

In all of the centres, young people can enjoy team games and awareness sessions along with activities such as gaming consoles, table tennis, pool, football table, music, dance, hair & beauty, cooking and arts and crafts.

We provide free squash and water for young people during the session. On some of the sessions, we also offer free savoury snacks, sandwiches and sweet treats donated to our Youth Club by Greggs.

Each Youth Club has a tuck shop selling various items, including drinks. The prices vary from 10p to 30p per item. All the profit from the tuck shop is reinvested into the youth club activities.

If possible, the best person to talk to in the first instance is the senior member of the youth staff team working at the session.

If you are not happy with how your concern has been dealt with or if your concern relates to the member of the youth staff, please contact our office in Beechdale Lifelong Learning Centre, Stephenson Square, WS2 7DY, on 01922746967 or via e-mail ffhca@tiscali.co.uk, and you will be put in contact with the appropriate person who will then try to resolve the problem with you either by phone or in person.

In all of our locations, we have managed entrance and nobody unauthorised has access to the building. In some of our centres, we have CCTV recording in operation for young people and staff safety. We are very strict on our signing in of young people, and all young people must have a completed consent form before attending the Youth Club. We ensure we have enough staff for the ratio of young people attending and that all of the areas of the Youth Club are supervised at all times. Incidents are recorded by the youth staff and reported to the Youth Coordinator. Our youth staff have relevant qualifications and training and are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Yes. All young people and their parents/guardians need to agree to our behavioural policy when signing up. We attach the Youth Club’s Code of Conduct and Young People’s Rules to each consent form for young people and their parents/guardians to read and keep for future reference.

We believe that all young people and staff have the right to have access to an environment that is safe, secure and free from negative or anti-social behaviour of any kind, therefore, it is essential for us to deal with inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour in a suitable, clear and consistent way.

To help young people and the youth staff establish what is and what is not acceptable behaviour in the Youth Club, we have categorised the rules of behaviour into three colours: Green, Amber and Red. We have assigned different sanctions and steps for dealing with the behaviour to each of the levels. Depending on the severity of the rule broken, the warnings might be first given, but if the young person continues to break the rules, they will be asked to leave the session early.

In serious cases, the young person might also receive a suitable ban that may vary from one week period of not being able to attend the sessions to being permanently banned from accessing our Youth Clubs.

When a child/young person is sent home from a session, or a ban is put in place, parents/carers of all young people under the age of 18 must be notified and fully informed of the reasoning behind these sanctions. If the young person is not allowed to leave the session independently, the parent/carers must attend to collect their child immediately.

Yes. If the young person does not agree on the decision about a ban, they have a right to put their reason(s) in writing to Liam Perrens, Youth Coordinator, Frank F Harrison Community Association, Beechdale Lifelong Learning Centre, WS2 7DY.

Through consultation and depending on the initiative of young people, we try to organise fun trips to places like theme parks, bowling centres, ice skating, go-karting throughout the year. We try to subsidise the trips with Youth Club funds as much as possible. On occasions we ask the young people to also contribute to the costs, this will always be as low as we can get it to make it fair to everyone.