Broadband company connects Hawick youth group with £3k in funding

Gofibre Hawick Escape Youth Club 2. Photo; Phil Wilkinson.

Escape Youth Services has received the funding from independent Duns-founded broadband provider, GoFibre, and its GoFurther Fund.

Founded in 2005, the charity serves as a safe haven for children in Primary 6 and older, offering a vital youth facility.

The organisation currently caters to 150 children in and around Hawick each week, from all backgrounds and experiences.

With the mission of improving social inclusion, isolation and anxiety, the team at Escape offer a diverse array of low to no cost activities to children, including life skills, sports, arts, and team building initiatives.

With high demand for the Friday sessions at Escape, the financial support will be instrumental in funding an additional youth worker to support the Friday drop-in clinic, ensuring that children throughout the region can continue to experience the benefits offered by this charity.

Sian Snowden, service manager at Escape Youth Services, said: “This support for our open access youth provision is greatly welcomed at a time when funding has become increasingly competitive whilst the demand for our service continues to increase. We are so thankful that they have seen the value in our work with local young people and for assisting us to continue to provide our drop-in session on Friday evenings over the next year.”

Earlier in the summer, the GoFurther Fund was unveiled in celebration of GoFibre’s full fibre broadband network being accessible to 50,000 premises across Scotland’s towns and villages.

As part of its ongoing commitment to tackle the digital divide across the country, the GoFurther Fund is enabling GoFibre to support vital projects and groups in their efforts to transform local lives in East Lothian, Fife and the Scottish Borders, areas where GoFibre continues to build its network.

Neil Conaghan, chief executive officer at GoFibre, said: “Projects like Escape Youth Services are an incredible example of the difference this kind of grassroots support can have in creating a better future for the next generation, and why it’s important for us to recognise and boost the incredible work of charities and organisations across Scotland.

“There has been a clear response from communities that there is a continued need for the work of organisations like Escape Youth Services. We are incredibly proud to be able to support them in their mission to transform local lives.”