£500 Donation from Councillor Wildsmith

Councillor Wildsmith recognised the work of the Drop Inn and made a donation of £500 to help with our running and equipment costs. House Proud and the British Legion donated us some computers.

Princes Trust Graffiti workshop

Young people with the Princes Trust came in and worked with us to redecorate and do some graffiti art on the walls.

The Official Opening

We held the official opening of the Drop Inn – a centre for youth run by youth. Belper Town Council bought us a pool table to set us up, the local Police gave us £500 to open up the fire escape and for security grills. To open up the fire exit I was out in the back yard trying to kick in the old door, suddenly a voice came from above asking what I was doing, it was a red spikey head who insisted on coming down, he appeared, ripped jeans to accompany the red spikey hair, ‘oh no, what have we here?’ I thought. But a more polite helpful young lad I could not have wished to meet – moral of this day, not everything with red spikey hair is dangerous!! He became a regular member of the Drop Inn and remained helpful and polite.
The grand opening

N64

The Drop Inn has it's first Console, Yes!

The Drop Inn OPENS

MARCH 2000
I conned two friends Nicki and Sue to help me run the Drop Inn, I purchased some paint from Wilko and with some of the young people we painted the rooms of the basement to their liking. Sue, Nicki and myself each put £1 in to open a bank account in the name of the Drop Inn. We opened at night and sat drinking coffee just at a table in the middle of the bar area, young people came through and just looked at us, we didn’t approach them, just said hello. Gradually they approached us and got talking. Within the first 6 weeks of opening we came across anything we could ever have to deal with, sexual activity in the back room, alcohol on the premises, drug addicts being in the rooms and violence. I got a few of the young people together explaining we had to set some ground rules, the youth committee was born and made the first rules and policies. We had to think and act on our feet.

Recruiting staff

I conned two friends Nicki and Sue to help me run the Drop Inn, I purchased some paint from Wilko and with some of the young people we painted the rooms of the basement to their liking. Sue, Nicki and myself each put £1 in to open a bank account in the name of the Drop Inn. We opened at night and sat drinking coffee just at a table in the middle of the bar area, young people came through and just looked at us, we didn’t approach them, just said hello. Gradually they approached us and got talking. Within the first 6 weeks of opening we came across anything we could ever have to deal with, sexual activity in the back room, alcohol on the premises, drug addicts being in the rooms and violence. I got a few of the young people together explaining we had to set some ground rules, the youth committee was bourn and made the first rules and policies. We had to think and act on our feet.

Offering the Basement of Moss offices

After appeals I was offered the Basement of a shop at the top of King Street by business man Richard Moss, he offered three months rent free as support to see how things worked out, this was my first big break. I took the premises in February 2000 and with the support of my employer (Liz Sread) from the Mulberry Bush After School Club I printed flyers to hand out to young people. I went everywhere I could find young people hanging about and gave them a flyer. This was where I first met Shell and Carl, two of the original characters who stayed many years. The flyers invited young people to a meeting at the premises in King Street to put ideas together. On that night in February, 83 young people turned up!! I asked them to name the centre, they came up with various names then took a vote on them, the most votes went to “The Drop Inn”, mainly because it sounded like a pub!! So The Drop Inn was born.

The ROOTS

Summer of 1999 had brought weekly reports in the local newspaper about teenagers taking drugs, vandalising the town, being intimidating and a nuisance etc, the final straw came when I read the latest headline quoting ‘zero tolerance’ from a local councillor. I couldn’t believe that teenagers could all be that bad, so armed with my Belper News I walked round to the Memorial Gardens – the main area for the bad reports. A Group of about 12 hooded teenagers lingered round the benches, without a thought about personal safety I marched over to the oh so fearsome teenagers. They looked up as I approached, un deterred I walked in to their midst and said “you may tell me to F off cos I’m a mad cow but you will listen to me first”, They were so surprised that they invited me to join them, within minutes a crowd of around 20 had congregated, a nicer crowd you could not wish to meet. They were polite, respectful and had a great sense of humour. We talked for an hour, all they wanted was somewhere to hang out, somewhere they could call their own, minimum adult supervision so they could take responsibility. They weren’t asking for alcohol to be available, nothing fancy, just somewhere to meet up and chat, maybe have a pool table, some computers, coffee/snack bar, listen to their music, but also to feel safe. I told them it could take 5 years to set something up, their response was “we all have younger brothers and sisters, they will need somewhere to go just as we do” that convinced me they were worth fighting for, so I made them a promise, that was to do everything possible to get something set up but also to keep letting them know how things were going – good or bad – I wouldn’t be just another adult asking what they want then forgetting about them. To this day the original ‘crew’ call me the Mad Cow.