40 DEGREEZ youth centre next to Farnham Leisure Centre in Dogflud Way will celebrate its 10th anniversary next week with a youth festival for young people and their families.

The festival will kick off at noon on Sunday, July 16, with hands-on activities for toddlers and children, a bouncy castle, talent show and stalls until 4pm, immediately followed by an evening of live music for older children and charity partners until 8pm - starring The Harry Baker Band, Against the World and Louie Davis.

All are welcome to pop in throughout the day, and barbecue food will be available all day as well as ice creams, healthy wraps, cakes, snacks and non-alcoholic drinks.

40 Degreez began life officially in 2006 when it was launched by the then-parliamentary candidate Jeremy Hunt to replace the defunct Farnham Youth Project based out of the same building.

Over the past decade the centre has responded to increasing demand, picking up much of the fallout from cutbacks to education and social care budgets, and it now offers a huge array of services for children and young adults from 9am to 9pm seven days a week.

These range from clubs for special needs children to vital social and health work, tutoring for children struggling in mainstream education, life skills training and supervised meetings for estranged families.

Janet Maines, who joined the centre’s board of trustees soon after its launch and has served as chairman for much of its existence, told The Herald: “When it was the Farnham Youth Project there were a couple of clubs in the evenings and a playgroup during the week, but the centre wasn’t fulfilling its potential.

“The trustees had lost touch with young people, so a new board of trustees was formed including representatives from the town, borough and county councils.

“It wasn’t just a name change, the whole ethos changed. We wanted it to do a bit of everything - give advice, leisure, entertainment, and over the years it’s grown and grown.”

As well as the fun, social element, there is always a serious purpose to everything 40 Degreez does and all young people attending the centre are encouraged to learn key life skills and work towards qualifications to prepare for life after secondary school.

And through partnerships with numerous organisations, 40 Degreez also offers more targeted advice on topics ranging from teenage pregnancy to cyber-bullying, substance abuse and self-harming.

Eve Baker, the centre’s admin, marketing and fundraising manager, said: “The centre has grown with the town and it’s grown with the young people’s needs. There are a lot more vulnerable people in Farnham than many would think, and although the town is fairly well-heeled, it’s still got pockets of deprivation.

“A lot of our services such as counselling for children with really severe special needs used to be provided in schools, but there’s just no money for it now so we’re picking up a lot of that here.

“What we’re trying to do is meet the needs of everyone but particularly those vulnerable young people, either through our own services or those provided by others in our building.”

The centre itself is owned by Waverley Borough Council and leased to the trustees for a peppercorn rent, and it has received outstanding support from the community over the past decade.

However, 40 Degreez receives very little ‘revenue’ funding for its everyday costs and the centre increasingly hires out its rooms for children’s parties and meetings to help maintain its building and pay the salaries of its five paid staff.

With demand still growing, 40 Degreez has also recently had to introduce a membership scheme for some of its more over-subscribed clubs - and for this reason the centre is always on the lookout for committed volunteers and new trustees to help ease the workload.

“Finding volunteers is always the big challenge,” said Janet. “We’ve had lots of very good volunteers in the past, but they often get so much out of their time here it leads on to something else and they leave do a university course or become a full-time social worker.

“It’s good because we’re helping them as well as them helping us, but it means we’re always looking for new ones.”

“It is a challenge,” Eve added. “But we have so much feedback to suggest that what we’re doing here is absolutely right. We are evolving with the needs, we’re not standing still and the need is changing all the time.”

For more information about 40 Degreez or the volunteering opportunities available, visit the website www.40degreez.org.uk.