Saturday 19th July marks six months since the Inspire Youth Collective opened on Ashby's Market Street.

The IYC's goal is to create a vibrant, lively and safe place for young people to spend time. By day, the IYC is a community hub with different groups running, and in the evening it is a safe and engaging youth club offering a variety of activities for young people to get stuck into.

The IYC is a lively new Youth and Community Hub in Ashby Town Centre (Photo: IYC)

The work the IYC does in the area hopes to continue to connect with young people, no matter their background and give them access to meaningful and fulfilling opportunities which nurture confidence, creativity and well-being.

Since the IYC opened in February, they have been VERY busy.

They run very popular Community Support sessions on a Saturday which has had such a positive response they have had to extend their opening hours to accommodate more people. Between 10am and 2pm, they are open to the community with the community fridge and clothing bank, as well as kids activities and movies - all for free. Then from 2pm onwards, they have a fun social café with barista coffee available for local people and board games of their teens.

The IYC regularly runs movie nights and has lots of games on offer (Photo: IYC)

Before Easter, they launched their Messy Sensory sessions for toddlers which are planned by the hub assistant manager and a SENS specialist. These sessions are capped at 6 children and include a playroom with lights and sensory TV, and a room with crafts and taste safe messy trays.

The IYC has launched popular toddler sensory sessions (Photo: IYC)

They also ran their first HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) at Easter which included decorating eggs and building a garden in the carport in conjunction with the National Forest. They also hosted a popular Easter event with baby chicks, face painting and crafts.

At half term, they saw their first fully booked Holiday Club with an escape room game and sports day on the Bath Grounds. They also received a 'Good' rating from a HAF quality inspection.

After half term, they launched SkillsCraft which are education workshops for children that are home-educated. These sessions have been very popular and are a valuable way for the young people meet new people, learn new things and build resilience.

The hub dogs Bluebell and Cinnamon have become a popular part of the IYC, earning a reputation as local celebrities with their own merchandise available. The young people have loved spending calming time with the dogs, as well as locals regularly coming in just to see them.

Bluebell and Cinnamon visit the Hub every Friday and like lots of fuss (Photo: Grace Kennington)

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the IYC's first six months and they have lots more in the works. For regular updates and to find out what is coming up, visit the IYC website and Facebook page.