Advice and support for young people on Canvey Island supported by £15k PFCC grant
For more than 30 years, young people on Canvey Island have had adults they can turn to for guidance and advice.
Canvey Island Youth Project (CYP Yellow Door) has operated within the community for three decades, providing a “safe space” and positive role models for young people.
From its community youth bus to sports clubs and youth-led projects, the charity has been on hand to build positive relationships.
Through the detached youth work, issues of antisocial behaviour or worrying trends can be targeted and tackled.
Surveys young people are encouraged to take part in help to identify what is going on in their lives.
The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex (PFCC) has contributed £15,622 to Canvey Island Youth Project (CYP Yellow Door) in the form of a crime and disorder reduction grant from the 2026 Community Safety Development Fund to support detached youth work.
PFCC Roger Hirst MBE said:
“Young people need positive role models in their lives – people they can trust, talk to and turn to for advice and support.
“That is what Canvey Island Youth Project has been providing for more than 30 years. Its team is out in the community, meeting young people where they are and building relationships that can make a real difference.
“To see those relationships and positive conversations continuing across Canvey is wonderful. I am delighted we are able to support the project and help make sure this valuable work continues. Long may it do so.”
CEO Alex Hawkins said: “We work with young people, offering holistic support, including mentoring, counselling, clubs and activities.
“They can come and talk to us, have a hot drink and take part in sport at Waterside. Or, with our detached youth work, we are out and about in the High Street, outside schools or talking to shopkeepers about what is going on in the community.
“We are there to provide an adult voice; someone the young people know and can get advice and support from. The conversations change all the time, depending on what is going on in their lives – we are talking a lot about vaping at the moment, as an example. Then, young people can access our wider services, like clubs and activities.
“We have been working in the area for more than 30 years, doing outreach work for the same period of time. We go to the places young people are, we talk to them about any issues they are facing or support them with projects they are keen on, such as sports clubs or training.
“We are generally asked to go into areas where there are issues of antisocial behaviour. We are not the police, but we are adults who can build positive relationships with young people and give them a safe space to come to.”
The PFCC has also awarded £21,982 to Canvey Island Youth Project (CYP Yellow Door) as part of the Violence and Vulnerability Unit (VVU) Community Grant Programme.
The programme funds organisations which work with young people, in local settings, with targeted, community specific interventions which have a positive impact on issues relating to serious violence.
The grant funded a youth worker, supporting the delivery of two weekly youth clubs during school term time, Friday Night Open Access Youth Club and Thursday Night Youth Club, for more vulnerable young people.
Alex said: “Without this funding, these young people might not have adults or people in their lives to talk to.
“We are an independent charity, so everything we do relies on funding, donations or volunteers. This funding allows us to keep going.
“It is always a struggle to secure funding, so the PFCC support is really brilliant and enables us to do more of what we are doing. It is recognition that what we are doing is valuable to the young people and that is such a positive.
“It shows that we do makes a difference.”