Praise by Children's Commissioner of England

The Children's Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, has described Trust Thamesmead's Youth Leisure Zone (YLZ) project as the ‘best and most exciting' he's seen of the many youth projects that he has visited that are being funded by the Government's ‘myplace' initiative.

Sir Al and his Deputy Sue Berelowitz visited Thamesmead last Wednesday (30 September) as part of the 11 MILLION ‘Listening Tour' during which they aim to meet children and young people to find out what issues concern them and what work is being done to address those issues.

He was also joined on his visit to Thamesmead Sir Al by Erith and Thamesmead MP John Austin and Trust Thamesmead Trustee Janice Ward-Wilson.

The Trust's Community Development Manager, Janice Jones said: “Sir Al was particularly interested in visiting the Southern Arches, which will be the YLZ's new home, to establish the impact the £5m myplace funding will have on the lives of local children and young people.

 “Members of Thamesmead Youth Voice helped plan Sir Al's visit and spoke to him about the history of their group, their current work plan and gave him an informative briefing on the Youth Leisure Zone. Then members of Bexley Youth Council gave a presentation their work

Janice Ward-Wilson, the YLZ Champion on the Trust Board, spoke of her sense of pride and satisfaction of being involved in such an exciting project. She said: “I want to express my thanks to everyone concerned with the event. On leaving, the Commissioner shook my hand and congratulated me on the project, commenting that it was the best he had seen and that everyone involved in the project should be very proud.”

In closing Janice Jones said: “I am so pleased at the manner in which the young people from Thamesmead Youth Voice asserted themselves. They never fail to do us proud!”