Plymouth youth club workers 'determined' to reopen centre forced to close

• Watch Bob Cruwys's report

Workers at a youth club in Plymouth are fighting to reopen a site after it closed down due to a lack of funding.

Staff at the SpaceShot Youth Project have been helping young people in Ernesettle for years, by building confidence, teaching life skills, taking residential trips away.

They would hold sessions on Thursday evenings that were attended by 20 to 30 young people.

But the charity Barefoot, which also ran centres in Whitleigh and St Budeaux, announced it had to close down at the end of March after running out of funding.

This was despite the organisation engaging with more than 500 young people last year.

Sixteen-year-old Jay Connaughton, who used the centre since he was 10 said: "It's just a safe place to come and talk to people, hang out with your friends, have a good time, learn how to cook, learn basic life skills to get through.

"I see all the kids and I don't want them to go without what I had, because I know how much this has helped me and it's a shame to see that they have got to go without that.

"They will be losing out on a lot."

Carly Brown-Martin, who has been a youth worker at the centre for more than two years, said: "539 young people is a lot to just leave and try and let them fend for themselves when they are in a really vital part of their life, trying to learn and develop into adults, and they need people to be there for them."

Jay has now started a petition to try to find a new space for them.

Two senior youth workers are in the process setting up a Community Interest Company to try to continue their work, supporting the young people of Plymouth in future.