New youth centre has been seeing ‘really good’ uptake
The Base is located in Park North
Young people involved in Swindon's new youth centre say it has been a great success so far.
When The Base officially opened in March, not all of its facilities were done yet, but the finish line now seems to be in sight.
The Base is currently used by Swindon’s three youth organisations, WAY, STEP and SMASH, but is set to open up for public use in summer.
19-year-old Ollie Thornton from WAY told Greatest Hits Radio: “It's taken a little bit longer than we anticipated. At the minute, they're still working on the outside garden space, which I think is sort of like a therapy garden.
“But apart from that, I'm pretty sure the whole building is done how, which is cool. It's all coming along pretty nice, so it should be done hopefully in the next week or two.”
The three organisations run activities for children and teenagers who are involved with them as well as with children from local schools.
WAY also runs its Change Makers initiative from The Base where young people meet up with council leader Jim Robbins once a week to discuss any Swindon-related issues and get a chance to give their input.
Young people 'love The Base'
SMASH recently hosted their Child First Event 2025 at the youth centre as well.
“I only walked past when I left work but the conference had like 70 people in it and it was a pretty crammed room, so it was pretty cool seeing that”, said Ollie.
“And then on WAY’s behalf, our uptake has been really good. We've got a lot of people coming to all of the sessions that we run compared to where we had them previously, which is really cool I think.”
He added that the young people “love the base”.
“The first time we had the WAY Sports session here, we took them outside into the outside sort of courtyard bit and they were in awe. They really carried it and care about it.
“The kids love WAY and they love The Base because The Base is where WAY is and just the way they talk about it and the way they act when they're here.
“They're like ‘Oh, this is awesome. Can we see the studio?’ And they're like ‘The studio is awesome’ and ‘Can we bring our mates? Can we bring our friends?’ and all that.
“And the same with the outside courtyard space. They really carry it and hold it like quite high up.”
The hope is that later this year, spaces in the youth centre can be booked by other organisations and private people to hold sessions in as well.