Our Team

Victoria Suchak - Manager

I have been running the Zone Youth Club for over 18 years, first at St Andrew’s Church in Reading Street, then at The Gap, Queens Road Baptist Church, and for the past 7 years at The Pavilion Café in St Peter’s Recreation Ground. I am a qualified Senior Youth Worker, overseeing all the weekly club sessions we run at the café.

I am also an Arts Award Advisor to Gold Level, assisting Gemma in delivering this nationally-recognised award, and I’m also Co-ordinator and Centre Leader for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. We train young people to Bronze, Silver and Gold levels, taking them out on expedition and supporting them in their D of E journey. I am also a Physical and Mental Health First Aider, and a Sexual Health advisor for young people.

Since we renovated and opened the café, I have also become more involved in community work, and now run our parent and toddler group MiniZone, our Senior craft group (affectionately known as Knit and Natter), and plan all our school holiday activities for children aged 7-16. I also look after an allotment nearby, and aim to get young people as well as older customers involved in helping maintain it, and try to provide fresh fruit and veg to use at the café.

I am responsible for the day to day running of the café, all administrative processes, reporting to our funders and other Trustees, fundraising, recruitment and training of staff, and maintaining the quality and service of our provision. All our team are trained in Emergency First Aid, Safeguarding Young People, have Enhanced DBS clearance, and receive continued professional development when appropriate. Our main priority is the health and wellbeing of the young people who attend our youth café.

We have Gemma who delivers all our art sessions - she is an expert in creative techniques and is our in-house Arts Awards Advisor. Gem is also one of our Mental Health 1st Aiders, and is great at motivating and supporting young people through art and conversation.

We have Asha who is our newest youth worker - she has quickly settled into our routine and is getting to know our club members well - she’s introduced Backgammon to some of our young people, loves craft activities, and is a kind, calm, supportive person, ready to join in whenever and wherever needed!

We have Kane who is helping us out for a few months over the winter - many kids know him through his Skateboard school, Skorcha. He’s worked with us in the past, and it’s great to have him back on board (see what we did there!)

We have Marcus who delivers our sports and games activities - he joins us during school holidays to supervise football, rounders, dodgeball, cricket……Marcus also used to come to our club when he was much younger, and now he’s back in a team role!

We have Harry who runs our Saturday morning Football Club, for which we are hugely grateful. Harry left us for full time employment in September, but just couldn’t stay away…….and we’re really grateful!

We have Anna who works one session per week, usually with our younger group - she is very interested in creative writing, and has a lovely calming presence in our sometimes lively sessions!

Also, during our summer holidays we increase our team to be able to cope with the increased demand!