Our mission is to empower every young person to grow with agency, build a joyful and inclusive community, and thrive in lifelong fulfilment.
We recognise the uniqueness of each individual, ensuring they are connected to the opportunities and support they need to succeed.
By rejecting deficit models, we celebrate strengths, foster joy, and co-create a better-connected future with young people at the heart of everything we do.
Mary’s Youth Club has been offering open-access youth work for decades—welcoming all young people, no matter their background or circumstances. Open access means there are no referrals or criteria to meet—anyone can drop in, take part in activities, build friendships, and get support if they need it. But over the years, fewer places have been able to offer this kind of youth work.
At the same time, youth work has changed. Young people’s needs have shifted, new ways of working have developed, and there’s more pressure from funders and the state to focus on targeted and specialist support. This means that, while we stay true to our open-access roots, we also make sure young people can get extra support when they need it most.
Mary’s is shaped by our members, with support from qualified, experienced, and enthusiastic youth workers, trainee youth workers, and volunteers. We regularly review how we meet the needs of young people, making sure our activities, support, and spaces work for them. Young people can suggest activities, share ideas, and give feedback, while our team also looks at ways to improve and adapt what we offer. This partnership ensures Mary’s stays a place where young people feel heard, supported, and able to thrive.
We provide open access, inclusive youth services co-run with young people: a provision that helps young people from all backgrounds to be better connected and better equipped with the skills and confidence to form and engage with supportive networks of friends and family, health and social services, businesses and organisations.
We believe that being better connected improves the long-term prospects of young people, brings greater opportunities and sets up young people for lifelong fulfilment.
At Mary’s we seek to develop young peoples skills and attitudes rather than ‘remedy a problem.’ We promote the voice of young people and strive to treat young people with respect, utilising their view of the world and respecting and valuing difference (this is one of the reasons why young people get to choose for themselves whether they take part in an activity or not)
We are committed to supporting young people in their learning, growth, and development—and this approach extends to our team as well.
Our team consists of qualified and experienced youth workers and trained educators, all passionate about helping both young people and adults discover and learn. That’s why we are dedicated to hosting student placements for the next generation of youth workers currently studying at university
At Mary’s, this is a progressive programme of activities in which participants engage over a period of time, measured in years, not weeks.
The programme covers, drop-in, health and wellbeing, creativity, skills for life, employability and future leaders, and social action
see the homepage for more details of each
Young people choose to take part
Utilising young peoples view of the world
Treating young people with respect
Seeking to develop young peoples attitudes, rather than remedy ‘problem behaviours’
Helping young people develop stronger relationships and collective identities
Respecting and valuing differences
Promoting the voice of young people
Have a look at our News and Blogs, and check out our socials @marysyouthclub
Have a look at our News and Blogs, and check out our socials @marysyouthclub
Volunteer your time, contact us about becoming a partner, sign-up to one of our training courses, or donate
