Dee-Caf is not going quietly
Monday 27th September 2010, 1:00PM BST.
Dee-Caf members past and present came together for a march to celebrate its 10th anniversary and also to raise awareness of the fact it is likely to close on Saturday due to lack of funding. (Picture by Zoe Ash, 1033155)
MEMBERS of young persons’ drop-in centre Dee-Caf made their voices heard on Saturday afternoon.
Around 50 past and present members paraded from the cafe in the Bordage to Bulwer Avenue in a bid to raise awareness of its existence – and save it from closure.
Manager Kim Pattimore said the centre, which has been running for more than 10 years but relies on donations, looks due to close on Saturday.
It costs £70,000 a year to run, but a lack of funding now threatens to close it for good.
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Why Dont these young persons put in some money themselves, as they always seem to have money to smoke cigarettes on the pavement outside and on tower hill steps and are always sporting new tatoos!
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Tony – I think you will find that most of them have donated money themselves and they have actually been doing all they can to help save Dee-Caf, and a few of those that go in there actually do have jobs so not only do they work and donate money they also give up their spare time to try and save the place.
You are quick to judge those that you no nothing about aren’t you!?
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Sammie
You say a few of those that go in there actually have jobs and donate money/time etc,well why dont the rest of them get jobs and do the same! Even the ones at school can get saturday jobs and pay there way.Stop moaning and get your buts in gear!
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Tony you seem to have a very strong view on this matter, how about you put YOUR money where your mouth is and donate some of your cash. Now just think off those children you claim to see smoking all the time outside the building, where will they go if Dee-Cafe closes? maybe outside your lovely building? I’m sure you might pay £1 for genes for jeans, or the odd 50p in the handy candy box well think of the islands children. Dee-Cafe is extremely well thought of by ALL ages and does a very good job indeed and we need to support local things! Now i’m sure when you were growing up you had a lovely youth club or football club to attend to whereas our youth of today dont always have that luxury. People moan about kids on the streets, Dee-Cafe is there so kids arent on the streets, so place your hand in your pocket Scrooge – go on you know it makes sense!
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Vee
I regulary donate to needy causes eg, les bourgs hospice,headway,RNLI to name a few, but will not donate money to this cause as I believe it is not needy.If dee-caf is as popular as you say it is, I am sure they will get the money. And by the way, When I was Younger I had many interests such as fishing, swimming, beachcombing, modelmaking, football up the park and many others. To fund these interests I used to work for 2 or 3 hours after school and enjoyed weekends
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Well said Vee!!!
Tony – excuse me get my butt in gear I do have a job I work very hard with my daughter in the morning and work in an office in the afternoons until 6pm! I support Dee-Caf because they have done a lot for some young people an they have helped some of them that go in there get a job, my partner used to go in there when he was younger and have helped him – even if it was just to let off steam rather then go out and vandalise something or steal – which is one of my main reasons for supporting them.
If Dee-Caf does close down I hope they do all crowd around the building where you are having their fag at least it would still give you something to moan about – you would prob think twice about not supporting the situation as well! I bet you probably make more then what some of them do in there and they still donate to help where as all you do is sit back and moan.
Like I said you are very quick to judge those that you no NOTHING about how do you know that some of them don’t have part-time jobs? Some of them may have very good reasons for not having one at the moment and Dee-Caf is there to help them through that.
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what do they spend £70k a year on?
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Ah Tony what a lovely childhood you had, shame others havent been so lucky. And its probably people like you that stop the younger generation gaining jobs because you cant see the bigger picture.
If a child wears a hoodie they are branded a thug. if a person has a tattoo they are obviosuly rebelling against something. If someone stands outside a youth centre and has a quick fag well they are lazy kids who dont want to work! well i’m 27, I own a lot of hoodies, I have around 15 tattoos, used to smoke and did spend a lot of my youth at Dee-Cafe. I have all my GCSE’s, A-Levels and have gained a Diploma and I work for a leading business within the channel islands, not bad eh! and I didnt have any money growing up or a saturday job! my parents are proud of me :)oh yeah and I own my house!
TEAM DEE-CAFE all the way!
And all the money you give to those charities, how much stays on island? every penny will for dee-cafe!
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Tony, rein them in old boy!
I’m one of the first to whinge about the layabouts in town (there’s an excellent Guernsey futu “report on that – very funny). But trying to do the same thing in this case is a bit rich.
Sounds like you’re getting desperate to bang your drum!
The Legend that is…. BTF
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Wots all this tonee why ave a go @ us teens right when u waz 1 a long time ago mate/! this island needz too move on and get with now not b draged back by dinosores!
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Ed has raised a very valid point providing it wasn’t tongue in cheek – I too would like to know what £70,000 would be spent on should I donate. Is there a document somewhere? I presume someone has come up with the figure from somewhere? Or perhaps I missed a press article on it?
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rejected youth – sorry only just read your post – what exactly do you propose moving on is? Move on where? By the public not donating surely this is DeeCaf moving on?
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@Tony, you sound like an exciting guy!
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Vee
life is what you make it,good or bad.
Sammie
you seem to think every youth that does not go to dee-caff will go out and vandalise or steal.
rejected youth
unfortunately I do not speak swahili or I would reply to your comments!
Finally if people cared so much about Dee-caff,why were there only about 50 people on this parade-very popular Eh!
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Rijected yoof I isint bileevin u mate
your post is 2 lejibal 2 be taken seeryosly innit
I reckon youz can rite an talk proper an you isnt even a yoof like
Big up 2 u 4 tryin tho
Random
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and just one more time…
what’s the £70k for?
Anybody got any idea?
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Ed
Ill have a guess…
Staff, rent, electric, water
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70k does appear to be a lot to run such a venture for 12 months, where was the funding coming from before? I agree with ED, Just why does it cost 70k per year?? Are they keeping all the patrons in fags & booze? That would please Tony..innit!!
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Ahh Donk
Paid staff?
It’s a commercial enterprise then?
How many hours is this place open to rack up such a high running cost?
Surely there are enough charities doing the same work at zero cost with unpaid volunteers.
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From my experience there is not such a thing as zero cost. But I agree with volunteers and other ways of reducing costs.
Has anyone noticed that there are no Deputies or high profile figures? usually there is someone wanting to get in on the action!
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Tony
I will try wel hard to get the tiping right so u can understand! Shame you are left in the dark agges man! we need somwere to go. You winge wen we hang out at the church, we finally have somewere to go and when thats under atak you get all minstrel.
As for 50 peeps bein not much – wonder how many gimmers would creek out right, if they wanted to close the bowls green at beasie – woud make a wikid ice rink right!
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@rejected youth
Just who or what are you trying to be, all this gangsta nonsense? What a sad state of affairs if you are typical of the yoof!!
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I live in the Bordage and have seen adult men (not youths) stood in the doorway of Dee Cafe drinking cans of beer at 08:30 in the morning, on my way to work. For this reason alone I’ll be glad to see it close.
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@dave – brilliant!! Perhaps dee-caf could invest in some English lessons for its users.
In all seriousness however, although I have never been to dee-caf and am not aware of what it actually does/offers, if it’s keeping kids off the streets who would otherwise be getting into trouble then I think it should be supported.
I’d presume Donk is right, 70k would be swallowed pretty quick on rent and bills, plus apparently they have youth workers, I’d imagine they aren’t free but if it’s getting people off various substances and out of crime into work and “legal life” then I think the states should be supporting this, at least some amount.
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I is tellin ya dave m8. Rijected yoof is puttin it on…
(reverting now to the Queen’s English)
It’s too perfect a parody to be true…
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U is right Martino ya no! e is probly a grown man who tinks he can diss oo e likes init. Na wot a meen blood!!
Yes he is a faker for sure.no one can be that daft surely!!
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Hmmmm, to be honest, I’d have to agree with the folks stating they’d be glad to see the back of the place.
I understand both arguments, I mean we all know there’s not a hell of a lot for kids to do on our little island, but again this raises a whole new series of questions. When I was younger (Turning the ripe old age of 26 soon) while we did complain that there was next to nothing for us to occupy our time with, we still managed. And we we’re a lot fitter/healthier than the more recent crop of youngsters. So I’m left struggling trying to sympathise with the fight for keeping it open.
While I understand that every child’s upbringing is different I still can’t see why these kids can’t occupy themselves with kicking a football around a field or something of that ilk. And to be quite frank, having young kids hanging around the type of older generation that dee-café attracts, and I may lose a few people here, we’re just asking for more kids to take up smoking & drinking. Well kids, you’ve got your whole lives to do that, just have fun being a kid!
Rant over!
My2Cents
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Roy ~ I have no idea which “grown men” are at Dee-Cafe drinkin beer but I can promise you they DO NOT ATTEND the youth centre! If they are there at 8.30 then they are purly standing in the door way, dont even think dee-cafe is open that early! so sorry mate you are WRONG!
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Why are people so negative about such a positive, privately funded social enterprise?
In one breath I bet the very same detractors would oppose public funds being used to provide these facilities, citing “get on your bike” personal experiences. Yet here is a perfect example of the thinking behind private sector social support, and still they complain!
It’s almost as though you guys think that all teenagers throughout the ages were able to be just like you were.
The fact is that the tiny minority of kids that benefit from these absolutely necessary initiatives – led by social entrepreneurs – have always existed, they’ve just not had the voice before.
This project needs support. For Guernsey, not supporting it belies a tragic inconsistency.
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get a job. sorted
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Perhaps some of these fit young people could offer to carry out manual tasks (gardening, clearing up rubbish, washing cars etc) in return for donations to their cause.
Or would that be too much like hard work??!!
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Interesting to read opinions from people that have never been into Deecaf, how can you be so judgemental. Being a youth worker is learning to accept people for who they are and finding the good in these people and working on their strengths. Deecaf works with young people from all walks of life, its a place that teenagers can be themselves and express themselves and not be judged. Most of the young people that attended Deecaf over the years have all done very well for themselves, they just needed support and guidance with being a teenager, which after all is difficult at times as your not treated like a young child anymore and not treated quite like an adult, so you get mixed up a lot of the time. Some of the lives our young people have had would make a grown man cry, so by offering them support and a real “family” atmosphere they can learn from being here. It would take too long to go into great detail, but if anyone wants more information regarding Deecaf then i am more than willing to talk about it personally. As for the costing, yes, it does go on rent, 2 staff wages, which has been the same for past 5 years with no wage rise or cost of living rise, and all utilities. Young people fundraise and get quite involved with different projects and we do have future plans for lots of things to keep young people motivated and to learn practical skills. We are not just a waste of space. As for adults smoking andd drinking on the doorstep at 8.30am, these could be anybody as we are not open until 11am. As said, for those not in the know, please get in touch
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Kim ~ I think what you do is amazing! you have always been there for every person young or old that has stepped through your door!
You do an excellent job and if half the people on this site actually knew what you did then they wouldnt be so quick to judge!
You are an amazing woman and you have so much support! you do not need negative people trying to bring you down. Your great! xxx
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A fantastic post by Kim – all should hang their heads in shame. Particularly Tony. You may not be able to understand the more modern speak of “yoof”, but to be honest I think that’s more your problem than his or hers.
Remember when nostrils were spelt nosethirls – or something like that. Times change. Plenty of perfectly decent, intelligent people write in txt spk.
Deal wiv it, aaiigghtt?!
The Utterly Westside BTF
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I aint putting anyone down………..you aint getting my money. What we need is some good right wing policies to sort out is going wrong in the Island.
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well said kim, you are great, and do a great job, keep it up, those judging dee caf, get facts right first eh,,,
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two of the now ”reformed” youths trying to keep decaf open are on remand and another one is up for assault… yeah nice bunch of youths…
although if there is an alternative to hanging out at the town church, swearing and annoying the public in general then yeah keep grotty decaf open
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As the parent of a child who regularly goes to Deecaf, I would like to say what a good job Kim and her team do. Many teenagers go through tough times, at school, at home or just growing up in general. It is great for them to have a place to go where they can chat about their problems and feelings. They are always given appropriate and pratical advice and help. Sometimes it is much easier for them to talk to somebody outside of their family/social circle. There are many cases of depression and suicide amongst young people and if Deecaf can help any one of these, how do you put a price on that.
Having visited Deecaf myself, I know that it is not full of drop outs and people who just can’t be bothered to do anything else.
Well done to Kim, Drain and all the people who work at Deecaf. You do an excellent job and provide a great service to the Island. It is a shame there are so many short sighted people who can’t see that!
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Valandra Bolan. You are right, we do have some “troublesome” youths and its frustrating when they get into bother, but we dont give up on anybody and we always try to continue to help young people turn their lives around for the better. It does work, some take longer than others. And grotty Deecaf, do you mean the decor???? I hope so, and not referring to the young people that go there
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I went to a youth club in my younger days (some 15 yrs ago now) and yes it did keep me out of causing all kinds of other aggro. The staff were very friendly and put up with a lot of nonsense in order to give us somewhere safe and organised to have fun. Now as an adult I tend to forget what I was like back then, and believe me I was hard work. I can’t say what difference Deecaf makes to these young people (maybe someone should ask them!) but what I can say is that people like Kim & Drain certainly had a positive influence on the way I turned out and I’m sure many of my friends from “back in the day” would agree. You don’t have to give them your money, but at least give them your support because they’re doing a job which most of us would run a mile from.
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Hi all i think that you should never judge a book by its cover. If all the people took as much time to come in and see the work thats done and chat to the young people in dee caf as they do to come on here and comment. they would see all the good that dee caf does. (Not just pass by in the car or from a window.)kim does an amazing job witch A
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