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.