Everyone at Rose Hill Junior Youth club is passionate about supporting children, young people and adults living in and around Rose Hill, Oxford.

RHJYC was established in 2011, and became a registered charity in 2015.

All of the activities, projects and support that we provide is free and accessible, and we offer a range of fun, engaging and creative opportunities that promote healthy wellbeing and community cohesion.

Our services offer a vital lifeline to so many; providing support, independence, self-confidence and self-esteem. Everyone is welcomed, feels valued and respected. 

Our youth clubs

We run four after school youth club sessions every week during term time, supporting over 120 children and young people aged 5-16 every week.

We provide lots of free-play activities, arts and crafts, games and puzzles, cooking activities, and nature activities for the children to enjoy.

Our free sessions provide safe, meaningful, creative and healthy activities which aim to improve self-confidence, socialization, and independence.

A hot, nutritional dinner is served at each session and the children and young people sit and eat together with our dedicated and caring staff.

Our youth clubs sessions are supported by The National Lottery Community Fund.

Our work with food

We have been feeding children, young people and families in and around Rose Hill for over fourteen years.

We work with communities in two of the most deprived wards in Oxfordshire, and the worst 10% in England and Wales for child poverty.

We’ve witnessed a 38% increase in families asking for help; all disproportionately impacted by food/fuel insecurity & poor health outcomes.

In response to the increased requests for help over the last 18 months, we are now supporting many adults in addition to children & young people. 

We actively expanded the range of support that we offer to include holistic well-being activities and free food support to meet the growing needs of the community.

Our work ensures that we meet the needs of the community by offering:

– Access to hot nutritious meals during all youth club sessions, school holidays and community events.

– Essential grocery items, toiletries and good quality clothing. 

– Mental health and wellbeing support in safe spaces.

– Cookery clubs for children and adults, teaching the practical life skills of preparing and cooking good, healthy food.

Grow a Row for RHJYC campaign

We are delighted to be supported by the Deddington Allotment Society, which has chosen to support our work by growing produce for Rose Hill Junior Youth Club.

Allotment holders have pledged to grow rows of beans, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, beetroot and many more vegetables and fruits, to help us feed children at RHJYC.

Our Food Ambassador, Gregg Brown, is also supporting the Grow a Row campaign, encouraging allotment holders to support local charities:

“I’m incredibly proud of the collaboration that we’ve built between the charity and the allotment here in Deddington. The opportunity to provide healthy and fresh produce for the children each week is incredible. We hope to inspire allotment holders across the county to support local charities through the Grow a Row campaign.”

Our allotment

We originally set up our allotment space in 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, so that we could engage safely with children and young people.

Since then, we have welcomed hundreds of children and young people to the space to engage with fun and informative nature based activities.

Thanks to a recent grant from Oxfordshire Community Foundation, we have been able to expand our nature activities in the community.

We have been able to increase our nature activities for the children who attend our youth clubs and also offer free wellbeing in nature sessions for adults.

A grant from Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE) and Grundon Waste Management Ltd is also helping us to create an accessible community garden outside of Rose Hill Community Centre, where everyone can enjoy planting, harvesting and sitting in nature.

There are now many opportunities to build confidence, learn new skills, and feel happier through activities in our safe, relaxing green spaces.

Mentoring

We provide additional support for schools, social workers and care organisations through our mentoring service. We take referrals for children and young people and offer tailored one-to-one mentoring sessions with an experienced youth worker.

Our service aims to support vulnerable and disadvantaged youth, giving them a safe space to feel unburdened.

We help them to improve their mental well-being, to develop coping strategies, socialize with others, and gain tools to build resilience through a range of engaging and creative activities.

Meet the team:

Our work is also supported by: Oxford City Council; Oxfordshire Community Foundation; UK Youth & Pears Foundation; City of Oxford Charity; Well Together; Oxfordshire County Council (Good Food Oxford); Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE) & Grundon Waste Management Ltd; and Garfield Weston.