Leaders celebrated after £1k boost

Streetwise Youth Club founder Gerry Gregoire, 53, wrote to apply for a grant from the Swallowdale Trust, which teams up with The Gazette each year to hand out £10,000 to good causes.

The youth club was awarded a £1,000 grant which was used to purchase a pool table, TV monitors and interactive games, as well as funding a stage project called ‘Time 2 Shine’, which focuses on challenges faced by young people, such as peer pressure and bullying.

Gerry, who lives at All Saints Road in St Annes, founded the Streetwise Youth Club at Freckleton village hall in 2002 to support his own children.

He said: “They were bored and getting into mischief so I decided to get into youth work and that’s how Streetwise was born.

“We now have 70 young people coming in every Friday.

“We have young people from the days when we first started helping out as volunteers now, and that makes me very proud.”

Gerry and his wife Elaine, who also works at the youth club, have now been recognised for their efforts by Warton Parish Council, which awarded them an ‘honorary citizenship’ certificate in celebration of their youth work in the area.

Gerry said: “We were over the moon because we never expected it. It’s like a localised OBE as far as we’re concerned.”

To apply for a grant from Swallowdale Trust, email [email protected] with Swallowdale in the subject field, or write to us at Swallowdale Trust Community Giveaway, The Gazette, Avroe House, Avroe Crescent, Blackpool Business Park, Blackpool FY4 2DP no later than Friday April 22nd 2016.