A “wonderful” Newport youth hub project designed to reduce anti-social behaviour was given a vote of confidence by a community council yesterday (Tuesday).
‘The Port’ is a proposal for an arts and creativity centre based at 64 South Street which would offer young people pop up workshops in a space where they can feel “understood, inspired and safe”.
Isle of Wight Council project manager Fiona Capewell and Beth Kidd, a representative from property consultants ERMC Ltd, presented the plan to Newport and Carisbrooke Community Council’s (NCCC) Full Council meeting yesterday evening.
NCCC councillors voted unanimously to support the project – mainly in the form of being a ‘formal leaseholder’ of the 64 South Street building, when needed, and to send any ‘grant applications’ to funding organisations, that might be necessary.
The Port is inspired by academic research from the United States, showing the more young people engage with the arts, the less likely they are to report being engaged in anti-social behaviour.
It aims to unleash the creativity and literacy of the Isle of Wight’s younger generation all the while “giving relief” to the Island’s police force.
Proposed workshops include sessions on DJ decking, poetry and article writing.
The Port would also host an acoustic open mic night once a month, a book club swap station and a bookable work space.
Fiona Capewell said:
“Many young people and other residents feel unsafe in bus station, Church Litten area because of the level of anti-social behaviour – it’s identified by the police as an ASB hotspot – so we really wanted to do something to tackle that.”
Beth Kidd said:
“I’m a creative, I’m a musician seeing it first hand. I teach on a Saturday rock school programme delivered from Platform One which is extremely popular on the Island amongst young people.
“And seeing how that can affect young people positively is a really nice thing to be able to do.”
Cllr Matthew Price said:
“Fantastic, it’s been an ambition of this council to do something with that building – we’ve tried and tried for many years.
“It is a really good location for it to be used for something that’s going to increase the youth provision that’s got to be built.”
Cllr Louise Rippon said:
“This is wonderful and I can see how it would appeal to so many.”
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