Knighton’s Family Centre Services are to close as grants become hard to find

The service includes Monday and Friday morning play groups and the Youth Drop-In Service.

Around 100 families have attended the Family Centre playgroup over the last four years and attendance at the Youth Club has ranged from 30 to 40 youngsters per week.

There were five staff employed across both services.

The existing staff  have been offered redundancy while some have left to work elsewhere.

The Family Centre and Youth Club have been funded by various grants over the last five years, however in the current economic climate these are no longer available.

So for the past year these services have relied on private donations and use of the Community Centres’s reserves.

Chair of the Community Centre  Management Committee Tom Clough said; “We have regretfully

taken this decision as the grant funding for these valuable services has come to an end. 

“The Committee thanks the staff and all users of the services for their support and understanding. “We will continue to seek alternative funding and hope to be able to reinstate children’s services in future.”

The Comm will continue to provide all the many other activities, classes and events currently on offer such as the weekly Women’s Hour, Thursday Drop-in lunch and, from the autumn, Flicks in the Sticks, the Wellbeing Festival and the Knighton Literary Festival.

The community centre originally had funding for a pilot Family Centre from Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations in 2021.

Then the family centre was funded by Powys County Council for two years from 2022, with additional support from Comic Relief. 

Knighton Town Council has also helped fund the Youth Club over the past four years.