Providing greater consistency and a more focused service was the rationale behind the re-branding of Nelson’s award-winning youth and recreation centre – The Hub.
The Hub opened in 2003 as a youth centre for 14-25 year olds located in central Nelson. It is based in a 1275 m² converted warehouse and contains a variety of spaces for recreational programmes.
The Hub won the Supreme Award at the 2004 TrustPower Nelson Community Awards and represented the region at the TrustPower National Community Awards, held in March 2005. At that time The Hub offered not only a place for young people to hang out but also a place to access a range of health, education and welfare services such as sexual health, counselling, drug and alcohol clinics, free breakfast programmes etc.
However offering such a wide variety of services led to The Hub’s governance team becoming concerned about the organisation’s lack of consistency or focus. This led to a re-positioning of organisation in 2006 and a re-branding, with the The New Hub being launched.
The New Hub’s manager Ron Kjestrup says there was a need to consolidate the services on offer at The Hub and to return the focus of the organisation to being a youth recreation centre.
“The health services that were running from The Hub were all very piecemeal – many had short-term contracts and therefore the centre lacked consistency. Also around 90% of the young people who used The Hub did not require the intensive services that were on offer,” says Ron.
So in 2006 The Hub closed its doors and thanks to support from Lotteries and Eureka Trust the building was refurbished and then re-opened as The New Hub.
Today The New Hub offers an internet café, basketball court, indoor skateboard ramps, table tennis, pool, a climbing wall, dance studio, music practice room, sewing room and art room. Regular Friday night gigs are attracting more and more young people, as The New Hub offers a place where local High School bands can play in front of a non-competitive audience.
The New Hub is also the base for Youth Transitional Services – an employment service funded by the Ministry of Social Development which works with 15 – 20 year olds who have barriers to training or employment.
Working at The New Hub along with Ron Kjestrup are two full-time and 4 part-time youth workers. These youth workers run The New Hub’s recreation programmes, which includes workshops on a range of topics from cooking to skateboarding, as well as referring youth to other community services where required.
“What young people often need is guidance and support to lead them to the relevant services in the community and enable them to ask the right questions, and that’s what our youth workers are focusing on now.
“A core part of my job is to build the networks between us and other agencies to create a net for young people. We find the gaps and come up with creative ways of filling them,” says Ron.
The New Hub receives core funding from the Nelson City Council and also has community assistance contracts with the Council to deliver recreation and arts programmes. Lotteries, COGS and the Canterbury Community Trust have also provided considerable support to the organisation.
Over recent years The New Hub has also expanded to provide a space for all community members, with conferences, workshops and various not-for-profit groups using The New Hub’s facilities.
Ron says the team at The New Hub are really happy with the results of the organisation’s re-positioning.
“We are getting a wider group of people using The New Hub as a safe and friendly place to hang out. Consistently we have a couple of hundred kids using the building every week and there is anecdotal evidence that the young people using The New Hub are developing increased levels of resiliency.
“A young person can walk in with any number of issues and with the input of qualified, committed adults we can see the change in their situation in no time – and that’s just fantastic,” says Ron.
For more information about The New Hub contact Ron Kjestrup on 03 545 9147 or email manager@nelsonhub.org. |
