Warrington Youth Club is our charity of the month for August.

Each week, we will be finding out how the club makes a real difference to young people in the community and how it aims to inspire people to reach their potential by offering a range of opportunities and services.

WARRINGTON Youth Club was born out of the idea that inside everyone young person is a genius waiting to be discovered.

The club, which was originally established in 1952 as the Warrington Boys Club, aims to support young people’s development to help them reach their potential.

Currently based at the Peace Centre on Cromwell Avenue and The Skills Bank in Time Square, both staff and volunteers are armed with the tools they need to help nurture the talent of young people in the town to turn their dreams into a reality.

On average, the club works with around 22,000 young people a year through the number of services on offer.

Chief executive Dave McNicholl said: “WYC is steeped in the history of the town and the organisation has supported generations of young people from across Warrington.

“We continue to provide a wide range of services to children and young people from a range of backgrounds and aged between 7 and 19.

“Our aim is to inspire young people to achieve and we find many different ways to ensure that children and young people are fully involved in all of the services we run.”

There are a number of opportunities open to young people in Warrington to help them gain and develop skills in a number of areas.

The Skills Bank in the town centre, which is open from Monday to Friday from 12pm to 8pm, was launched to help instil confidence in young people and increase their knowledge, experience and understanding of business.

From arts and crafts and computer workshops to sports games and team building events, the youth and holiday club pack as many activities as they can into these sessions to engage young people from across the town and enable them to make positive and healthy life choices.

WYC also runs a number of specialist projects and programmes which includes Girls Group, Buddy Up, Loud and Clear and the National Citizen Service.

To find out more about WYC, visit warringtonyouthclub.co.uk or call 581226.

Next week: We look at how the Buddy Up scheme, which supports disabled young people to attend regular social activities with the support of their buddy, has made a real difference to one youngster’s life.