Community collaboration celebrates new and improved youth facilities on Corby’s Kingswood estate

A community collaboration group in Corby is celebrating the completion of their six-month capital project to improve the youth facilities and provision on the Kingswood estate.

Kingswood Urban Development Project, a collaboration between four key partner organisations in the area, was awarded £248,096 from the National Lottery Community Fund.

They were awarded the money to improve the existing youth facilities and develop more sports opportunities to encourage young people to be more active and take up volunteering, training, and learn employability skills.

A new calisthenics rig was installed in November 2022, followed by solar lighting on the multi-use games area and a new skatepark facility was installed and completed at the end of April.

The new and upgraded facilities have been well received by the young people with the calisthenics bars being heavily used at every opportunity by young people of all ages.

Northampton Town FC Community Trust will soon be utilising the facilities as they will be launching their very popular Premier League Kicks programme in June.

It is hoped that this programme will provide positive role models to inspire the young people to get involved, play on a regular basis and take up volunteering and training, with the aim that it will enhance their leadership skills, build their confidence and resilience whilst improving their physical and mental wellbeing.

The upgrade to the skatepark has been on the community’s wish list since 2018 as a result of a community engagement exercise in the development of the KHL Big Local Action Plan for the area.

Since then, there have been follow up consultations with the community and various attempts to secure the funds to develop the facility.

At the beginning of last year, a small working group involving the four key partner organisations decided to take on the challenge and in the summer were successful with a National Lottery Funding bid to develop this three year capital and revenue project.

Sam Johnston, Northamptonshire Sport, place lead said: “It has been great to work on the KUD Project, being involved in all aspects of the project working at a place-based approach.

“Seeing the capital builds now complete after all the hard work is really rewarding. It is great investment to both the community and the Kingswood estate.”

Lynn Johnston, facilities manager of Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre, said: “This has been a long project in the making, through dedicated and passionate people of the organisations who have worked in partnership just shows what can be done on an estate where it is much needed. Linwood Community Cooperative i.e., Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre is proud to be a part of this project.”

The project is a collaboration between Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre, Northamptonshire Sport, North Northamptonshire Council and KHL Big Local, who have been working closely with the community over recent years to improve access to opportunities in the area.

As Kingswood is one of the priority areas within North Northamptonshire’s Levelling Up Agenda, the council has provided dedicated officer time from the leisure team to oversee capital works and manage the designated budget. The council will also be responsible for ongoing maintenance following installation.