ROSE Hill Junior Youth Club has been handed almost £4,000 in funding by councillors after increasing popularity put strains on its services.

Rose Hill and Iffley city councillors Ed Turner and Michele Paule each donated £1,000 to the youth club last month from their ward budgets and Litttlemore city councillor Gill Sanders has donated about £2,000.

The youth club, which is regularly attended by about 80 young people from Rose Hill and the surrounding area, had to start running sessions twice a week last September to cope with demand.

Its numbers trebled between 2012 and 2013 and are expected to increase further after the new funding was announced.

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Mrs Sanders said she was happy to help out the youth club.

She said: “It started off with a fairly small group of youths and it has been the most amazing success.

“It became so successful that instead of running just one night we split it and ran it on two nights and we now have a total of over 80 who come.

“The activities are absolutely brilliant. The staff who work with the children are really professional; they do a great job.

“We also provide a meal at the end of the session and the children are involved in providing it.

“The volunteers and the children serve it and sit down together.”

In May the club was awarded £1,000 by Oxford City Council to develop a sports programme for children from Rose Hill.

Mrs Sanders said the youth club was more than just a place where young people could have fun. She said: “There is a session where the kids bring a chair and they sit down in a circle and they are asked a question like ‘how do we think we should behave to one another?’ “They give great answers like being kind to each other or caring for each other.

“The youth club is reaching out to all sorts of youths and building trust with them.

“It is building relationships with youths.”

The club runs for children aged six to eight from 3.30pm to 5.30pm on Wednesdays and from 3.30pm to 5.30pm on Thursdays for children aged nine to eleven.

To find out more about the youth club and get involved call 07770 324277.

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