A York park will have a new café this summer, run by a city youth organisation.
Choose2Youth has been chosen to run the Hull Road Park café.
It will be launched in temporary cabins that have been installed on the old bowling green on Alcuin Avenue, off Hull Road.
They plan to sell “cheap and cheerful” food from roughly 9am until 4pm with some potential extra opening times for dog walkers or other groups.
As well as a café, they plan to run the buildings as a “mini community centre” with local groups able to use the buildings.
Get more people into the park
Choose2Youth is a not-for-profit group which works with young people and adults with disabilities and additional needs.
Its young people will run the café to build their work and life skills, said founder Rachel Smith.
“We are looking at how to get more people into the park and using the park,” she said.
“Looking at the demographic in the area, we can see there’s a need for things for under fives, so we want something for parents and toddlers.
“We’d also like to bring in the older people in the area and fight social isolation, and we know the park is popular with dog walkers.”
Choose2Youth already works out of The 68 Centre on Monkton Road and Moorlane Youth Centre on Wains Road.
Hull Road’s ward councillors started looking for someone to run the café earlier this year, after an earlier plan by small community group York Flourish fell through.
Community focal point
He said: “We are really pleased to have Choose2Youth on board. They do a lot of good work and are a well-established charity in York.”
The group’s bid to run the cafe focused strongly on engaging the community and making the park a focal point for the community, he added.
Although the current planning permission for the temporary cabins only lasts until 2020, Cllr Pavlovic said they hope to prove a cafe can be succesful in Hull Road Park and then make it a permanent presence.
Anyone who wants to get involved with Choose2Youth’s plans for the cafe can contact email them here.