Youth Club


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1960 (Annual Report)

Membership of the Fitzroy Children’s & Youth Centre rose to 300. The Centre is staffed by two full-time and two part-time staff members and thirty voluntary leaders.  The Centre opens at 3 pm each day until 5 pm for children under 9 years.  The 6.30 Club is for children 9 to 14 years.  "On the first Sunday in each month, children are taken to the beach or to the country and after a picnic tea they return to the Centre for a children’ service."  Two Youth Club members completed leadership training courses and film projector operators courses and took on responsibility of voluntary leadership in the Children’s Club. (BSL Annual Report 1959-1960, pp 8-9)

 

Extensions to the Youth Club officially opened by Mr Bruce Hall, President of Melbourne Apex Club and Mr Pat Loftus, past Public Relations Officer of the Victorian Association of Youth Clubs.  Youth Club meeting times extended to Saturday mornings between 10 am and 1 pm.  (BSL Annual Report 1960-1961, pp 6-7) "Opened in August 1960, the extensions, carried out by the Melbourne Apex Club and Youth Club members, provided additional space by removing a wall between two rooms and installing a coffee bar in the sitting room.")

 

1962

The Youth Club “has a number of outside interests - once a month films are screened for members of the Coolibah Club, the young offenders group at Pentridge Gaol, and a Mental Hygiene Clinic”  (BSL Annual Report 1961-62, p.7)

 

1963 (Annual Report)

Work parties from the Youth Centre assisted in cleaning up a property at Bunyip to be used for weekend camps. (BSL Annual Report 1962-1963, p.10)

 

1964 (Annual Report)

The Reverend Peter Hollingworth joins the BSL, appointed as Director of Youth and Children's Work, with responsibilities including the Children’s Centre, Coolibah Club and Youth Centre.   (He began the two-year Youth Leadership Course with the Social Welfare Department in 1965)

 

1965 (Annual Report)

Mr Graeme Bull, was given leave from his role as supervisor of the Youth Centre to take up the 2-year full-time course for Professional Youth Leaders run by the Victorian Social Welfare Department (BSL Annual Report 1964-65, p.6)

 

Service summary at 1965 - the Brotherhood of St Laurence provides:

 

1970

Morven which had been owned by the BSL since 1951 and had provided holiday opportunities for children, families and older people, was sold, with the funds "to be applied to the provision of youth and aged services in keeping with the original appeal which helped to finance the property".  "In March 1970, Morven was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Telford, who restored the house and turned it into a luxurious reception centre re-named “Morven Manor".  (BSL Annual Report 1968-1969, p.11)

 

Youth and Leisure Centre attendances jumped due to the impact of a sudden increase in population when families moved into the new Fitzroy Housing Commission flats.  Three full-time children’s workers were responsible for the afternoon programs during school term and the holiday programs.  Twenty-five “mobile camps” were held during the year, using two fully-equipped four-wheel drive vehicles and trailers.  (BSL Annual Report 1970, p.4)

 

1971

Social Service Bureau, Creative Leisure Centre and Youth Centre closed to make way for the radical Family Centre project 

 

1973

 

The Brotherhood decided to support the work of the Fitzroy Community Youth Centre by subsidising the cost of an extra Youth Worker on their staff. (March)  (Brotherhood Action June 1973, no. 201, p.8)

 

Youth worker in Broadmeadows, Mike Bullock, working with the Broadmeadows Youth Services Group and funded by Leith Trust through the BSL  

(Brotherhood Action June 1974, no. 204, p.9)

 

 

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