The Crib youth club launches £50,000 crowdfunder to keep doors open

Festive fundraising: Janette Collins as Father Christmas. Photograph: The Crib

Hackney social inclusion project The Crib has started a £50,000 fundraiser due to funding cuts, in a desperate bid to keep its doors open.

The youth club, which sits in De Beauvoir estate, first began in 1999 when  community engagement worker Janette Collins was asked to set up an intervention project by Hackney Council to help address anti-social behaviour.

Collins prides herself on the project having brought children and young people from across the borough into the space and nurtured them into pursuing careers in the creative arts, criminology and more.

She told the Citizen: “We’ve been going too long [to close now]. We’ve helped thousands of young people into jobs and to stay out of prison.”

Collins, who this year had hopes of handing over the reins as the club marked its 25th birthday, said she will be looking for part-time work alongside managing the club to make sure it stays up and running.

The Crib recently met with Hackney Council to see how the local authority can work with them to “discuss potential avenues of support”, a council spokesperson said.

Although there is a history of collaboration between the local authority and the social inclusion group, the council said there had not been a “substantial contract” between the two for eight years.

Until 2018, the club had an agreement with the Hackney Marsh Partnership, commissioned by the council to do some work for the Stoke Newington Youth Hub.

Former Labour councillor Sophie Linden, who now works for the Department of Justice, notably collaborated with The Crib’s organisers to combat “gang culture”.

A council spokesperson said: “All organisations, whether successful or unsuccessful, are able to access information and support through the Young Hackney Youth Provider Network.

“This facilitates practice development, sharing opportunities, knowledge and practice guidance, information on funding opportunities and enables organisations to raise any particular issues and concerns that may be helped by collaboration across organisations.”

With help from the East London Business Alliance, The Crib hosted a Santa’s Grotto at the youth centre last Friday.

You can donate to the Crib’s fundraiser here.