Mobile Youth Bus Departs from Roehampton
Will provide access to education, mental and sexual health services
Young people using the interactive white board on the bus
September 20, 2023
A new mobile youth bus has been launched in Roehampton with the aim of providing access for young people to education, mental and sexual health services on their doorstep.
The bus will be based in Roehampton as part of Wandsworth Council’s work on the Alton Estate Regeneration. Additional funding has come from the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit providing flexibility to regularly visit other locations across Wandsworth on a six-day route, including Battersea and Tooting.
The Mayor, Cllr Kate Stock and Fleur Anderson MP were in attendance as the new service - the first of its kind in the borough - was launched in Roehampton.
It will provide access to a purpose-built space which includes a music studio, interactive white board, and game consoles. The council says that this will enable children to safely engage, learn and interact with each other.
Working with partners including voluntary sector youth organisations, the bus will engage with young people enabling them to access mental health support, skills and employment guidance, sexual health advice, citizens advice and much more.
Kate Stock, Cabinet Member for Children, said, “This is great news for children and young people in our local communities. I’m really pleased that this new service in Wandsworth will travel to the heart of our communities where young people are, giving them a safe place to go, providing engaging activities and offering them someone to speak to.
“With our new youth bus, we have listened to what our children and young people have told us they wanted, through our listening and engaging events over the summer.
“It takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a community to raise a generation. We are really hoping this will be the next step in offering a more diverse, agile and needs led offer for all children and young people in Wandsworth.”
Kate Stock, Lamees Bazuti, Wandsworth Mayor Juliana Annan and Putney MP Fleur Anderson at the launch
Lamees Bazuti, a young resident who attends activity centres in Wandsworth said, “I can really see all the amazing benefits the bus will bring for many young people in this area and I am excited to see what happens next.”
The bus’s proposed initial route is as follows:
• Mondays 4pm-8pm, 100 York Road, Battersea SW11 3RD
• Tuesdays 4pm-8pm, Dilton Gardens, Roehampton, SW15 4AT
• Wednesdays 4pm-8pm, Tooting Bec Lido Parking, Tooting, SW15 1RU
• Thursdays 4pm-8pm, Charlotte Despard Avenue, Battersea SW11 5HW
• Fridays 4pm-8pm, 236 Arabella Drive, Roehampton, SW15 5LQ
• Saturdays 2pm-6pm, Wandsworth Common (next to Skylark Café), Dorlcote Road, Tooting, SW18 3RT
The route will be reviewed quarterly allowing flexibility to adapt the route based on intelligence as to where it is understood the need is greatest. As part of the reprovision of youth services on the Alton estate, the route will always provide two days in Roehampton.
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