The Outside Club started with a simple belief: every young person deserves a place where they belong.
How it started
There wasn't enough youth provision in Penrith. The young people on the Pategill estate were playing out after school with nowhere to go and no one showing up for them. There were rising reports of anti-social behaviour and a community that felt stuck.
So we started a free weekly youth club. Outside. On the estate. For whoever turned up. No referral forms. No membership fees. Just trusted adults, some snacks, and whatever the young people wanted to do that week.
What happened next
In that first year, thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund, we worked with 40 children and young people. 90% of them came to three sessions or more.
We played torchlight tag on dark winter evenings. We made paints from natural materials. We swung on the goalposts. We lit fires and cooked food and just hung out, being there together, week after week.
It wasn't complicated. It was consistent. And it worked.
But the number that matters most? Over 40 young people choosing to turn up every single week. Not because anyone told them to. Because they want to be there.
Growing
We've since expanded into Carlisle, running weekly sessions at Hammond's Pond in partnership with The Rock Youth Project and Barnardo's Co-op Partnership, bringing food and activities to more young people who need a space that's theirs.
Show up, listen, let them lead.
The Outside Club is now a registered charity: The Outside Club CIO. It means we can build something that sustains and scales, reaching more young people in more communities without ever losing the thing that makes it work.
Turning up, every week, for as long as they need us.
What we believe
Not on a residential trip to the Lake District. Not in a forest school with a waiting list. On the estate where young people already live. In the green spaces they walk past every day. With the people they already know.
That's where it starts. And that's where we'll keep showing up.
Be part of it.