A youth project is preparing to breathe new life into a vacant sports centre in the north-west of Glasgow.
The DRC (Dumbarton Road Corridor) Youth Project will be taking over the former Yoker Sports Centre on Spiershall Terrace.
Arthur McNeaney, founder and head of operations at the charity, explained that the building, which has been vacant since 2020, will provide young people from Yoker, Scotstoun, and Whiteinch with a safe space as well as opportunities to learn and grow.
He expects that the organisation will receive the keys to the centre, which was previously run by Glasgow Life, in the coming months.
He said: “It’s going to be a multi-use, multi-skills training centre. It’s a different type of learning. The school system doesn’t suit everyone, and schools are recognising this.
“They are more open to organisations like us who can provide clear and successful alternative routes for their young people.
“We’ll have a music studio and live room, level two of beauty training, barista training, a gym and sports hall with climbing wall and of course, construction training where we aim to include introductory classes to joinery, plumbing, bricklaying, plastering, and painting and decorating.
“The young people might do 30 minutes each of their chosen classes, so it’s not boring them or disconnecting them.
“If something isn’t working for them that week, we can move on to something else. We will work with them for as long as it takes to get them ready.
“The space will be used for the school groups and then eventually the community and trusted community partners”.
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The DRC Youth Project previously operated as a branch of the Yoker Resource Centre (YRC) but became an independent charity in 2019.
It then took over its current premises in Kelso Place and expanded, creating its own beauty salon, allotments, and food pantry, which is situated on Dumbarton Road.
Each of the project’s spaces provides youngsters with employability skills and opportunities – something that DRC Youth Project believes is of the highest importance.
Arthur joined the organisation in 2010 as a volunteer doing music classes, but soon realised that supporting young people was what he was ‘meant to be doing’.
He commented: “I came on the scene in 2010, and within two years, I was running the project basically.
“I wasn’t trained in youth work. I wanted something a wee bit different. I came here to volunteer doing music, and I just realised that this is what I’m supposed to be doing.
“I could see the potential in the organisation. I got the job in 2011 to manage the place and did so right up until 2019 as a branch of the YRC.
“With all the cuts at the time, the DRC Youth Project was about to disappear. I believed in what we were doing, so I decided to fight for it instead of looking for another job.
“We busted our guts to try and make it an independent charity so we could apply for the Glasgow Communities Fund.
“With a week's notice, we got the application in and the rest is history.”
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From there, the team, which has now grown to 15, rebuilt the organisation, which Arthur says has “gone from strength to strength”.
He explained that he felt youth groups were “too one-dimensional” and there had to be other elements – the main one being youth employability.
On any given week, the DRC Youth Project can see up to 300 young people come through the doors, attending a variety of its groups, including the Pathfinder program, which is run in partnership with Workingrite.
Recently, members of the Strive group went on a sailing trip, and earlier this year, they travelled to Andorra to go skiing and snowboarding.
Arthur said: “For me, the youth employability side was key. I didn’t want the young people just coming in, playing games and then going away again.
“There had to be a pathway, and there had to be a pipeline. We have the early intervention groups for 8-11 year olds, the older groups, which are the 12-19 year olds, the BMX group, the Strive group for the most disengaged, and then the school groups.
"All lead to our employability and training services and Pathfinder, which is in joint partnership with Workingrite.
“We also have the pantry service, which is a youth-led community food initiative, and groups that support young people who are neurodivergent.
“We provide a pathway for wherever you’re at in life. Whatever stage you’re at as a young person, you have somewhere to go.
“We will work with you until you’re 40 years old if we have to, there’s no 12 week programme it’s you’re here and you have a chance to succeed at your own pace and if you fail or it doesn’t go right we’ll find out why that is and pick you up and get you back out there, that’s how it works here.”
Murdy Walsh, 20, has been attending the DRC Youth Project for a decade and praised its support.
He commented: “It’s very important. It’s made me who I am. I was on the ground, struggling when I was a teenager, and they invited me back in and got me a job placement.
“Now, I’m here to make sure everything is okay.”
For more information on the project, visit the DRC Youth Project's website HERE.
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