Last Wednesday evening guests from businesses across the Fylde Coast joined Trustees, Staff and Patrons of The Boathouse Youth at Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club in a private function hosted by Alan Halsall with a view to raising awareness of the charity’s work over the last 18-months and outlining our plans for the future.

Alan Halsall, a long-term member of the Golf Club, has been making major donations to The Boathouse Youth through his charitable trust, The Halsall Foundation, since 2018. Since then, the charity has gone from strength-to-strength with key milestones including the launch of an additional Youth Centre in Grange Park, the capacity to work with more than 1000 children and young people each year and the ability to generate an income in excess of £1m annually.

In his introduction, Mr Halsall, explained that during his involvement with The Boathouse Youth he has visited our Summer Camps at Bibby’s Farm, attended a Canal Residential Planning Day at the Village Hotel and enjoyed various meetings with senior management discussing progress. He appealed to others to get involved explaining “I can honestly, honestly say that the work this charity do is amazing and they are making a real difference to children in Blackpool. If you can help, please get in touch with them”.

Guests enjoyed a 3-course meal and were treated to an account from one of our longest-attending members, Madison, who first came to The BHY as a 5-year-old in our Infants section at Bloomfield and has journeyed through all our age-groups having recently started in our Seniors Plus section. Maddie spoke of some of the adversities she’s faced throughout her childhood and explained that the it is the constant presence of The BHY and its caring staff that have helped her build the resilience to want to do well in life.

Since 2012, Maddie has recorded more than 1500 attendances at The Boathouse Youth and accrued more than 5000 hours of activity which has included residential experiences, project-based work and representing us at corporate events such as this and others. Most recently, Maddie has been a key participant in our EmpowHER Girls’ Group delivered in partnership with UK Youth.

Laurance Hancock, our CEO, gave a short presentation outlining that the charity’s passion for tackling both the symptoms and the cause of poverty through high-quality Youth Work. Explaining that the charity had grown consistently since 2009, reinforced that although 1000 children and young people each year might seem impressive, for context there are 28,000 youngsters living in Blackpool with 9,000 of those officially “living in poverty” and there is still much work to be done for which additional support is continuously required.