Cuts to council youth budgets are putting vital specialist provision for vulnerable youngsters in jeopardyEvery Wednesday evening,Lukasz Konieczka and his team at the Mosaic youth centre in north London welcome lesbian, gay, or bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people from across the capital. Here they can socialise in a secure plot,receive support and mentoring from LGBT adults and collect answers to questions never addressed at school.
But, approach April, and Mosaic will have its funding pulled by Brent council,forcing it to shut its doors after 15 years. The council needs to make 54m worth of savings. It has slashed its annual youth service budget of £1.3m by two-thirds and is tendering out the the rest to one provider, which will need to cater for all the borough’s young people. Specialist services are therefore expected to disappear.
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Source: theguardian.com