Youth services are closing every day. Over the last decade, spending on Youth Services has fallen by 70%, leading to the closure of 760 youth centres across the UK. We desperately need your help to keep ours open.

Your gift changes lives. All donations to Southend YMCA go towards strengthening future prospects of the vulnerable young people we support. It's a serious issue, and we are the right provider, but we cannot do it alone.

Young people need safe places to go to and safe people to engage with. Without this security, they are at risk. Gang culture, knife crime and substance abuse are so easily fallen into for these young people who are exposed. The Covid-19 pandemic has also caused so many children to withdraw from society. We need to get them to a safe mental place again.

The support that Southend YMCA gives its young people positively impacts their future selves and arms them with valuable skills needed for a fulfilling life. Our Youth Work gives children and young people who are at risk a safety net to fall on and guide them onto a safer pathway. Our counselling and mentoring teams in Southend and the surrounding areas build core skills such as relationships, confidence and emotional resilience.

We serve the young community without discrimination, we invest in the future of young people, and welcome others to join us to do the same.

As parents and concerned citizens we know how growing-up and Covid-19 really impacts the mental health and well-being of our children. Imagine what it is like to not feel safe?