Toryglen charity to take long lease of local community centre

The PMGC programme offers the opportunity for interested organisations, groups, and individuals to become involved in the delivery of local services and projects by operating and occupying venues in their communities. The programme has already delivered a number of successful operations at city facilities over the past couple of years, such as Park Villa Football Development at Glasgow Club Drumoyne, Pollok United Nethercraigs at Nethercraigs Sports Complex and Castlemilk Community Football Trust at Barlia Sports Complex.

The Geoff Shaw Community Centre, located at 25 Kerrylamont Avenue, was a successful, well-attended facility before the pandemic and its subsequent closure in 2020 due to lockdown. The facility features a committee room, main hall, lesser hall, four meeting rooms, two small rooms, office, kitchen, and a café area, and after the pandemic, was reopened on a part-time basis only with Glasgow Life having no immediate plans to open it on a full-time basis. The centre was therefore made available to lease through the People Make Glasgow Communities programme and Toryglen Community Youth Project (TYCP) applied.

TYCP was founded to address the growing needs within the Toryglen community, with its origins in work carried out by the Southside Boxing Academy Community Hub to tackle local inequalities and identified a need for a youth project in the area. The Project is committed to addressing challenges faced by local youth and enhancing community health and well-being by offering structured activities, improving education and life skills, promoting public participation in sports, and providing recreational facilities.

TYPC offers crucial support to the community and considers the Geoff Shaw Community Centre to be a suitable venue from which to deliver its core services and to enrich the local area. Their application was assessed by the People Make Glasgow Communities and Community Asset working groups and was recommended by both for a long lease on which to run the centre.

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, Convener for Housing and Development at Glasgow City Council,said: "The approval of the granting of a long lease for the Geoff Shaw Community Centre to a local charity already supporting young people in Toryglen and the surrounding area will benefit the community there for decades to come. This is yet another example of the People Make Glasgow Communities programme enabling the delivery of community services to local people by locally-based organisations at and from facilities across the city."