New name but it’s business as usual, reassures local youth charity

LOCAL charity 4Youth, also known as Young Melksham, has offered reassurance about how it spends grant funding from the town council.

Following the recent news that the charity was expanding its reach beyond Melksham to deliver youth services in Westbury, Chippenham and Atworth, the town council asked for reassurance that the money they award the charity is “ringfenced” to be spent on projects in Melksham.

“When it’s parishioners’ money we have to absolutely clear that the money is being used for young people in Melksham,” said cllr Adrienne Westbrook at a meeting last week.

In December 2018, the town council agreed to give the charity £10,000 every year for three years – a grant that was described as cllr Westbrook as the biggest grant the town council currently gives. 

In response to the town council’s query, chair of the trustees of 4Youth, Jon Hubbard, who is also a town councillor said, “Funding that comes in from funding partners for work in the community is ringfenced to spend only within that community.”

About the rebranding of the charity to the name ‘4Youth’, Jon explained, “We’ve changed the name of the charity to better reflect the direction that we are heading in terms of the additional work that we are undertaking now in new communities.”

He also reassured councillors that the additional services would not “detract” from their work in Melksham, and explained that there are plans to further increase services in Melksham with the appointment of a new full-time youth worker, who will “exclusively” coordinate youth work for the town.

It was also explained by Jon that the ‘Young Melksham’ name will continue to be used in the town, to represent the “ever expanding” youth work in Melksham.