Ashfield youth hub now open!
IAF has just officially launched a second youth hub in partnership with ATTFE College and Ashfield DWP and is now set to support around 150 young people through its venue in Sutton Young People’s Centre. Having previously ran our Ashfield King’s Trust Team programme from the SYPC site on Station Road, IAF is returning to its former home with an even stronger support offer for young residents; a dedicated safe space for young people to access non-clinical mental health interventions and establish peer support networks, person-centred mentoring, training opportunities such as the King’s Trust Team programme and employer/ community experiences from integrated services, events and workshops. It may be early days for this project but the potential is huge: “We’re keen to see how this space evolves over time and we’ll be looking to replicate many of the components that have worked over in our Mansfield hub, here in the Ashfield hub” shares Pippa Carter, IAF’s director.
The launch event for Ashfield hub, held on October 5th 2026, had a great turn out and it was positive to see many organisations in the crowd all keen to support the work that will happen here and improve outcomes for the local area. “The context of the hub is to create a community led service in a fantastic delivery centre like this for young people” explained Dave Williams, DWP lead for the rollout of youth hubs in the area, "it gets young people away from the sterile type of institutional environment where they won’t engage with us, colleges or other organisations. Then they get lost so the fact that we’ve got these services here is just absolutely brilliant and it’s working.”
During the past few weeks in my DWP programme, I have grown confidence in my CV layouts, had help contacting companies about vacancies and within 2 weeks I've secured an interview with a local care company.
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Since opening the doors back in July 2026, 71% of the young people coming for mentoring have moved into education, employment and training. It is our belief that every young person should have access to local opportunities regardless of their starting position and we’d like to thank Nottinghamshire County Council for allowing us to use their space, and our partner colleagues at ATTFE for standing united behind this shared vision for Ashfield youth. If your organisation or business can offer their support also, please do reach out to us. We’re keen to see this space being used to showcase local progression pathways and giving young people real insights into the world of work so they can make informed decisions about their future - the more community partners that feed into this work, the better! Any organisations who would like to book a slot to attend should contact IAF’s Mentoring Manager and Careers Lead, Edina, by calling 07805 787428 or emailing edina.baines-krawczyk@inspireachieve.co.uk