Alford House Youth Club

“Things are picking up after just a week. We had a busy day yesterday. We had five one-to-ones in a school, seven members in the fitness studio in the afternoon (which is as much as we can manage under the restrictions) and 27 turned up for the evening roller skating, which was a bit scary! We had to split them up into groups and do table tennis and art as well and then we have to do our best not to let them mix.” Tim Saunders, Club Manager April 2021

When I read this message just the second week after the club had been able to re-open its doors to its members, it told me instantly and powerfully just how important Alford House is to the young people of the area.

Over the past few years Alford House has been developing a programme that aims to prevent exclusions from school and maintain student’s educational status in order to achieve their academic and employment potential. Funding has enabled us to employ staff to work in both schools and the youth club. Using a strengths-based approach, our staff work with young people to address the issues that can affect their motivation and behaviour. We explore challenging topics and provoke critical thought on themes that are creating barriers to young people’s lives such as hyper-masculinity, consent and violence.

Old Millhillians know better than most that education is key to life opportunities; missing out on it is demonstrably detrimental. Alford House’s outreach work really makes a difference to young lives and its effectiveness is clear: none of the 60 young people given targeted support in school or in the youth club since September 2019 has been permanently excluded.

It was while I was student at UCL that I volunteered at a youth club in Russell Square. I coached football and table tennis and did various other odd jobs. I loved it and I think this may be part of the reason I was keen to get involved with Alford House soon after I joined the staff at Mill Hill as Development Manager in 2006. I worked closely with Nigel Baker and Dominic Luckett in 2010 to increase the Foundation involvement and in other ways over the next few years, eventually becoming a Trustee.

Since I took over as Chair in Autumn 2019 the Trustees have focussed on two things: getting through the present in the challenging times created by the pandemic and looking to the future. In practical terms the former has been primarily about supporting the Club Manager and his staff as they have sought to continue to help the most vulnerable. There has been little we as Trustees have been physically able to do on a day-to-day basis. We are delighted with what the team have managed to do and grateful for their efforts in extraordinary circumstances while they have been dealing with their own personal and family challenges too.

In contrast we have been able to be very pro-active with regards to the future. Many youth clubs have closed in recent years and there are many pressures on the funding for youth services generally. It is clear these are woefully inadequate and the problems which face young people are ever more acute. Alford House has been providing support for the young people of Lambeth since 1884 and as Trustees we are absolutely committed to ensure that it continues. We have launched a development plan with the objectives of providing a club building, fit for purpose in the 2020s and a sustainable funding model for the future.

We have named the campaign Alford@70 because the club finally fully occupied its current Aveline Street premises in September 1951 after they had been rebuilt following extensive war-time bomb damage.Nothing substantial has been done since, so work is definitely needed and now!

The Development Team – largely OMs – is under the excellent leadership of Vice Chair of Trustees, William Maunder Taylor (Weymouth 1968-73), who brings a lifetime of experience in property to the table. Fellow Trustees, Chris Lloyd (Weymouth

1994-96) and Nigel Baker (Burton Bank 1955-61) together with experienced architect and project manager Jon Rosswick (McClure 1978-84) have created a plan which is being progressed as fast as the funding will allow. The design work for the whole refurbishment is complete and work on the first phase will begin soon.

It is almost 100 years since Old Millhillians became involved with Alford House. It was in 1923 that the Club’s founder, Frank Briant, got to know Ridgeway housemaster Norman Brett James and came to speak to him and some MHS pupils about the club. One of whom was George Goyder (Ridgeway 1922-26) who, after leaving School regularly volunteered at Alford House and became very close to Frank Briant. He was integral to fulfilling Briant’s request that OMs should become actively involved to ensure the survival of the club. It was after Briant’s death in 1934 that the role of Old Millhillians became formalised in the Trust Document which, with surprisingly few modifications, is still the basis for the Governance of the Club today. George Goyder was part of dynasty of Goyders at MHS, including one relative, Cecil, who put wireless masts on top of The Francis Crick Building and made the first wireless contact with New Zealand in 1924.

The Trustees have no doubt about the impact which Alford House makes on its community; this is a great motivator for all of us involved with the Club. I am sure that it inspired Nigel Baker (Burton Bank 1955-61) to become a Trustee more than 43 years ago and to Chair the Board for 29 of them. A fantastic record of service and commitment for which the Alford House community is enormously grateful. As his successor, I am delighted that he continues as a Trustee; as we greatly value his experience. We miss the support of Trustee, the late Andrew Welch (McClure 1975-80) who first volunteered as an undergraduate in the 1980s and went on to give dedicated and passionate support to the club for over 30 years. We are delighted that his daughter OM Rosie (McClure 2005-2010) has recently become involved too.

Tulip Siddiq, OM, Shadow Minister for Education said in the House of Commons on 20/10/20. “As the House knows, we are in the middle of Black History Month, so I will conclude by quoting a very famous black person, Nelson Mandela, who once said: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

The Alford@70 campaign and the long-term future of Alford House are totally dependent on the generosity of donors of time, money and expertise. What OMs have given in these ways over almost a century is fantastic, playing a major role in the very existence of the club; long may it continue. So please do get in touch if you would like to offer your help in whatever shape or form.

For further information contact: Nick Priestnall nick@alfordhouse.org.uk www.alfordhouse.org.uk