“FAR more than just a youth club,” is how youth workers at the Kings Arms describe the centre in Petersfield.

The brainchild of the Petersfield Area Churches Together (PACT) group, it opened in 2012 in former factory workshops in the Festival Hall car park.

The two story building is there for youngsters aged 11 to 18 years old, and for those up to 25-years-old with learning difficulties.

Operations manager Caroline Aeschliman said: “It’s far more than just a youth club, although we do provide activities for young people.

“We offer consistency and stability in an environment parents know is safe.

“And we support young people in whatever they aim to do, encouraging them, being there for them and helping them make wise decisions.”

To help with those decisions, the centre offers a wide range of support, activities and outreach and mentoring services – as well as plain old fashioned fun.

Among other projects, youth workers provide sex and relationship education and drug and alcohol awareness sessions at The Petersfield School.

They also run confidence boosting courses for youngsters, help autistic young people, run a daily after school club, and support young carers, some as young as eight,

Caroline said: “We know of about 120 young carers aged up to 18, but the last census suggests there are more than 400.

“They look after parents and guardians or other relatives, and it’s very hard for them.

“We provide a monthly youth club for them with a meal, support at school and for their families and every year we provide a three day residential holiday for them.”

The centre also provides information on youth services, activities and where young people can go to get advice on almost any topic – if it can’t be provided in house.

But in-house is not where the centre wants to be, as the owner of the building has ambitions to redevelop it at some point, and will only lease it to the centre for two years at a time.

Although till now this hasn’t caused an issue, with the landlord generously repeatedly renewing the lease, it has meant the centre can’t access long term funding.

To that end it, Kings Arms trustees are in talks with Petersfield Town Council over providing a purpose built centre attached to The Pavilion in The Avenue.

But both sides say progress reaching an agreement has proved slow.

A spokesman for the youth centre said: “The Kings Arms is currently considering the council’s latest letter regarding a financial model for a potential extension to the Avenue Pavilion.”