A COMMUNITY is rallying together to raise £17,000 for a new youth cafe in Botley.

Having seen a gap in services and activities for young people in the village, Diane Long and Dave Goodspeed have sought to fill it with the opening of the Branches Youth Cafe.

But the pair need essential funds to equip the kitchen, furnish the cafe are and create a project room.

Mr Goodspeed said: "The vision is that young people will come into the cafe after school and at weekends and find a safe, welcoming and friendly atmosphere where they can socialise and be fed and watered.

"From there, they can get involved at different levels in the running of the cafe as young volunteers and start to learn skills and develop interests.

"They might help out serving and waiting on tables, or they might start to train in the kitchen and gain work experience in catering or customer service.

"We believe that young people should be a valued and integrated part of our community, and given the opportunity to shine and show the positive contributions they can make, and be helped to find skilled safe local mentors to guide them".

The cafe will be based in the West Way Shopping Centre for people aged between 12 and 18.

Vale of White Horse district councillor, Emily Smith, said there was a lack of recreation provision for teenagers in Botley.

She said: "North Hinksey Youth Club does a great job for the under-14s, this will be the perfect progression route.

"As well as being a place to socialise and receive informal education I am particularly excited about the opportunities for young people to gain work placement and training within this social enterprise which will provide employability skills and experience of running a small business.

"I supported Branches application for district council funding and am pleased to say we were awarded £17,000.

"The next stage is to raise enough to match that funding and get the cafe open.

"With further county council cuts to youth services happening at the end of this year Branches Youth Support Service is going to be even more vital for vulnerable young people and I really hope the community rally round to get it off the ground as soon as possible".

Mrs Smith said developers Mace, behind the imminent re-development of the shopping centre, have let out the empty unit rent free until the final phase of the re-build.

She added: "The plan is for the project to stay in Botley centre long term, so working towards the social enterprise becoming financially self-sufficient will be key over the next year or two"

For more information visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/branchesyouth