Arts Awards

We offer this award scheme to all the children and young people who attend our youth club sessions. The awards inspire young people to grow their arts and leadership talents by learning about the creative arts in general. You can do an Arts Award in any area of the arts from fashion to poetry, rapping to dancing, sculpture to film. You can be an artists or performer, or develop your skills in essential roles like marketing or stage management. What do I do to get an Arts Award?

• Take part in different arts activities

• Be inspired by artists and arts organisations

• Experience arts events

• Share your arts skills with others

• Put together a portfolio or arts log in your own choice of format

We provide many resources in order to achieve this – our art cupboard is overflowing! We also try to include a trip to either a theatre or art gallery, and explore many different mediums either online or through discussion. There are five levels of which we focus on the first three, the introductory Discover, and Explore which is aimed at children aged 7+, and Bronze for children age 11+. Young people can also progress to Silver and Gold

For more info, click here

Duke Of Edinburgh’s Awards

D of E We currently have a group of young people working towards their Gold Award, but are happy to accept enrolments for Bronze and Silver levels as well. Doing your D of E consists of 4 sections which include learning or progressing in a skill, physical activity, volunteering in a community setting, and joining an expedition. Gold level also includes a Residential section. The expedition training takes place at our café – we teach all aspects of outdoor camp craft, navigation and route planning, first aid, budgeting and menu planning, hiking fitness, the countryside code, and much more. D of E is all about personal challenge as well as teamwork – young people learn many new life skills, make new friends, and gain a great sense of achievement.

For more info, click here

MiniZone

We have a parent and baby/toddler group who meet at the café on Wednesday mornings – MiniZone. We started with little babies, and now they are a lively, active group charging around the café playing with toys and snacking on biscuits and fruit, provided by “Nanny Biscuit”! We have a selection of indoor and outdoor toys, and encourage learning through play – sensory toys, painting and messy play, listening to a story using our Story Sacks, and a sing-a-long. New friends made, lots of emotional support, advice on childcare and development, and a really caring and friendly space for parents with little children. All pre-school children and their families are welcome, especially teeny ones as we all love a cuddle. But we do have to keep numbers controlled, so please check with Victoria before coming.

Community activities

Our main focus has always been children and young people. But now we have the café, we are becoming more involved in our local community. The morning café service is a welcoming, relaxing space for anyone to pop in for a coffee and a chat. We have a group who meet on Tuesday’s for a “knit and natter” – we try to get them to do other crafts too sometimes! They’ve made blankets for charity, help with our fundraising events, and joined in workshops. We’ve run taster and intergenerational sessions on exercise, cooking around the world, jewellery-making, water-colour art, and much more. We are always open to ideas and do our best to follow up on suggestions on what our customers would enjoy. We have a great relationship with our local Councillors Jenny Matterface and Joanne Bright who holds monthly (2nd Saturday, 10.30-12) surgeries at the café in order to keep in touch with local residents and any issues they can help with. We find that just by chatting and getting to know people locally, problems can be solved or at least helped, good ideas shared, and friendships made.

School holiday activities

This is one of our biggest challenges, and also the most fun! School holidays mean whole families come to the café – we provide lots of art and craft activities, put all our sports and games equipment outside, we have picnic mats, a gazebo, play tents, and the kettle and coffee pot are constantly re-filled. We are hoping to develop a lot more outdoor activities including games and ‘forest school’ learning. Intergenerational learning through food preparation and cooking, art and crafts, and team games will hopefully build strong relationships in families and between friends, and everyone will have fun doing so! We are part of the StreetGames/Fit and Fed campaign, which is an innovative and vital programme which offers fun physical activities and a nutritious, healthy lunch to young people. The scheme started in 2017 – we were ‘homeless’ at the time, but set up in the park and using a couple of changing rooms at Thanet Wanderers Rugby Club, ran a very successful holiday club. The campaign is aimed at supporting children who receive free school meals and during school holidays may experience ‘holiday hunger’ as their families struggle to feed their children. But, we do not distinguish or single out anyone, so offer this programme to all young people aged 10+ who are able to come to the café by themselves. If anyone wants to donate to help us with costs for the food, that’s gratefully accepted, but we do this to help our local young people regardless of situation – and we have great fun too.

FoodShare, and Allotment Gardening

We are part of the FoodShare scheme, which enables us to receive and share “on date” goods from our local Co-Op supermarket. We try to utilise this in our café menu, and making cakes, pizzas and anything else we can create for the youth club children. We also donate extra goods (mainly bread!) to our customers who may need them. Victoria also has an allotment just along the path from the café, and encourages small groups of children to come along with her when time permits, to learn about gardening, fruit and vegetable growing, what is a weed, and watering – which is obviously the highlight! We are part of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Campaign for School Gardening, which gives us lots of ideas and inspiration for growing plants. We also would love to encourage older people to help at the allotment alongside Victoria. Gardening is a great form of exercise, very sociable, nurturing and rewarding. We hope (weather and green fingers permitting) to gradually develop a Veggie Box scheme using produce from the allotment, and topped up with donations from FoodShare……watch this space! Have a chat with Victoria at the café, and look forward to some free veg!

Our Story

The Zone Youth Club first started one cold, snowy night in February 2005 at St Andrew’s Church Hall in Reading Street.  120 children and their parents lined up to join.  It was overwhelming, but we enlisted help from friends and family, and the club was born.  We had a long waiting list, started a second session, did lots of fundraising, bought lots of new equipment, trained staff, ate lots of sweets and burnt a lot of toast, tried hard not to annoy the neighbours too much, organised some really fun trips out, and made lots of new friends.  The children that came through our doors became happier, more confident, learned some new skills, gained new friends, and some stayed on to become junior volunteers. 

We moved to The Gap Community Centre in central Broadstairs in 2015 as we needed more space and to be more accessible.  But the seed of an idea was growing……club members and staff had always struggled with not having our own space, to do what we want, when we want, to not be reliant on hiring space, having storage for our ever-increasing equipment and resources.  So we took a big leap of faith (and some said madness).

In July 2017, we closed the youth club Friday night session for the last time. 

During that summer, we took on the huge task of renovating the derelict sports pavilion in St Peter’s Recreation Ground.  It had been subject to years of vandalism, rotting wood, a leaking roof, broken doors and windows, and neglect.  We spent long days and nights fundraising, applying for grants, persuading funders that we could fulfil our ambition.  We signed the lease, took most of the building apart, put it back together again, gathered a very mismatched collection of furniture, and in November, cautiously opened the door to everyone.

We re-started the youth club, but as an after school youth café – three times a week.  It was a struggle to decide how to manage the additional ‘members’ that were coming – the parents!  But after some gentle persuasion, another grant to allow an all-age session, we now have dedicated sessions for young people aged 5-16.  They come straight from school, eat vast quantities of free toast, meet their friends, play, chill, chat with us, and sometimes even learn some new skills.

We have become a very welcoming, friendly and supportive community café as well.  It made sense to open in the morning, for light refreshments for the people using the park – dog walkers, joggers, parents after dropping the kids at school, elderly people…..and now we have a lovely baby and toddler family group, a group of “knit and natterers”, occasional art and craft workshops, and lots and lots of chat!  We are a focal point for our local community, providing friendship, information, and whatever interesting activities we can think of.

Teresa Dickinson

Teresa has been involved with the youth club for many years and has helped greatly with our fundraising, especially during our renovation. We can always rely on her to provide items for our tombolas, and she helps out on our event days making tea and washing up!

Teresa has worked as an Estate Agent since 1986, from the west coast of Scotland to the South East coast of England - booms to recessions and back again! She works at Oakwood Homes as Lettings Director. Outside of work Teresa can be found walking her dog, enjoying good wine and food or watching sport, (not necessarily in that order…!)

Tina Brazil

Tina has been involved with The Zone Youth Club for many years – her daughter was a club member, and she was a volunteer at the club. A memorable moment – joining the Midnight Ice-Skating trip and having to sleep on a pile of cushions and beanbags at St Andrew’s Church hall, having administered chocolate fountain delights to a bunch of hyper kids. No sleep! Tina worked at Brazil Brothers for many years as Office Assistant, and now ‘retired’ spends time with her scrumptious grandsons. She tries to be actively involved in the café as much as possible, and is always on hand for advice!

Terry Boyce

Terry has recently joined the Board, having spent time chatting with Victoria whilst his son played football on Saturday morning’s at the Club! He offered his support, met the Board, and is now supporting us in our strategy plans, fundraising, and being a positive, encouraging “ear” to Victoria.

Terry is a versatile and experienced charity leader with a wide range of skills including strategic planning, team management, operational delivery, fundraising, stakeholder management, budgeting and data analysis. “I am collaborative and a problem solver, dedicated to my cause, always seeking to maximise opportunities and impact on beneficiary groups.”

Ian Curtis

Ian has been involved with the youth club since the early days – helping and advising with all our money-matters. He is especially tolerant of Victoria’s unique book-keeping “skills”! When the club became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and took on the lease to the Pavilion, Ian guided us through the procedures and offered much valued advice.

Ian is the Office Manager at Michael Martin Partnership, and is a Fellow Member of the Association of Accounting Technicians with over 30 years’ experience in the accounting profession.

Laura Baker

Laura joined the Board in 2023, and is proving to be an invaluable member, especially with strategy, monitoring and evaluation, and fundraising. She is a Manager within third sector with many years experience in private companies and public services. People before process, leadership over management.
”I enjoy creating and streamlining ways of working to achieve the best possible outcomes for everyone involved. Once described as 'an all-rounder who has one eye on the details and the other on the bigger picture.' I am a positive, enthusiastic, solution focused collaborator. Passionate about supporting people, volunteering, and making the world a better, kinder, place.”