Centre aims to keep supporting city's youngsters

Staff at a youth centre in a city which has helped thousands of youngsters over its 10 years want to open it seven days a week, in a bid to help tackle youth violence.

The Way opened in 2016 in Wolverhampton with a mission to replace services which were lost when more than 20 youth clubs in the city closed due to funding cuts.

Since then, it has welcomed more than 21,000 young people through its doors, with almost 400,000 visits for "fun, learning and connection", staff said.

"I thought the world was a very scary place, a very lonely place. It's not no more, because I've got The Way," Sam said.

She said she was welcomed with open arms when she and her two sons, William and Joseph, turned to The Way for help three years ago.

'Without The Way, we were very isolated' she said.

"[My sons] had no confidence and Joseph was a young carer at the time and we was really struggling with behaviour, lashing out and realising he didn't have a childhood, so someone told us about The Way."

The centre is funded by a combination of council grants and private donations and will need to keep fundraising in order to open seven days a week.

The push from managers comes as Wolverhampton continues to deal with worrying levels of youth violence.

In recent years there have been several high profile murders of teenagers in the city, including 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai in 2023 and 17-year-old Harleigh Hepworth in 2024.

Philanthropy manager Tyrone Johnson was one of the first young people to use the centre and is now part of the team aiming to raise £1.8m each year to keep it open.

"It's stressful sometimes," he said, "but when I see the sessions happening as I'm finishing work, it's all worth it."

In 2018, a shy 10-year-old named Natalya walked into The Way Youth Zone looking to make friends and become more confident.

What she said she found was a supportive community that helped her not only blossom socially but also prepared her for her dream career in the Army.

"Having a gym at The Way has really helped me up my fitness," she said.

"It's exactly what I needed to achieve my goal of becoming a soldier,

Chief executive Paul Snape joined The Way in 2024.

"A lot has been achieved," he told me, "but this is just the start. There's still thousands of children and young adults we need to reach."

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