A Burnt Oak youth club that aims to build community relations and give young people skills for the future will be launched this week.

The youth club is being set up by Barnet Homes and other Burnt Oak community organisations in the wake of a double stabbing in Watling Park in Abbots Road in January, in which a student was critically injured.

Support and customer services project manager at Barnet Homes Tim Blanc said: “After the incident in Watling Park we did a lot of outreach work with the wider community to find out what they felt needed to be done.

“Young people think Burnt Oak isn’t a great place to live. We want to change their perceptions, get them actively involved in the community and show them a new direction to take.”

The youth club, which will meet for the first time in the Margaret Wilson Room at the International Gospel Church in Watling Avenue at 6.30pm on Thursday, will offer young people the chance to socialise and play pool, table tennis and X-box and Wii games.

The club will also offer workshops on subjects such as gangs, drugs, self defence, life skills and cooking, which will be run by volunteers including Darwin Bernardo, who founded the Nutmeg community trust.

Mr Bernardo said: “We aim to raise leaders. These workshops will help young people get more engaged in the community, help them develop skills and self confidence and offer them the opportunity to get work experience.”

He added similar youth clubs had been trialled earlier this year and had been very popular.

“At the youth club we did last term, 150 young people turned up. They told us they would like something like this.”

Mr Blanc said: “We have already attracted a lot of volunteers, including some of the apprentices who work for Barnet Homes. We’re sure it will be a big success.”

Barnet Homes apprentice Shabina Cannon, 30, said she was looking forward to volunteering at the youth club. 

She said: "I enjoy working with young people. I want to be involved in helping with workshops that help them back into employment and training.

"I'm passionate about working with young people and helping them improve their lives.

"Life hasn't been easy for me, but I've got through it, I'm going to talk about my experiences, which I hope will be an inspiration for them, I want to do my bit to give them hope for the future."

The youth club is part of the Love Burnt Oak campaign, set up by the voluntary, statutory and community sectors in Burnt Oak, which aims to help young people overcome health, social and economic barriers they face. 

To find out more about the youth club click here