Stage Goat in partnership with Area 43 is celebrating after receiving £500,000 of National Lottery funding to open Lampeter Youth Café.
Stage Goat has been awarded the six-figure sum through National Lottery funding to support its work with young people.
The group, based in Lampeter will use the money to open a Youth Café Safe Space, to be run in partnership with Area 43.
Area 43 has been running its safe space, Depot, in Cardigan since 2021, seeing over 1000 visits from young people a month. Stage Goat and Area 43 plan to open a partnership space in Lampeter that replicates the provision.
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Stage Goat has been running a youth café from Victoria Hall in Lampeter, but with this new funding, they plan to move to a dedicated building in the town.
Both groups have been working with the young people’s lobby group, S3 (Safe Space to Speak / Safle Saff i Siarad), to create a network of safe spaces for young people across Ceredigion.
The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will see Lampeter offering its very own youth-led safe space which will provide drop-in support, activities and onward referrals to services for young people.
Tracey O’Grady, Stage Goat’s founder says: “We’re thrilled that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we can broaden the range of support and opportunities available to local young people. Working in Partnership with Area 43 will mean we will be able to share learning and resources to ensure the highest standards of support for young people in Lampeter.”
Rachael Eagles, CEO of Area 43 said “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Stage Goat as a local provider of youth support services, they are best placed to meet the need in Lampeter, and we at Area 43 are committed to partnerships with organisations that fit with our youth-led ethos to deliver quality, young people led services to young people regardless of their location”
National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities.