Remember Rowner

I love living in Rowner is a common statement by current and past residents of Rowner Estate. Our aim is to capture that community spirit and provide a place of aspiration and opportunity for young people. Although we cannot sustain the youth centre as a dedicated standalone centre for young people we believe that we have created a business case that will enable the youth centre as part of a wider community project become the aspiration and opportunity for young people.

This will be achieved by creating a youth arts and media centre (YAMC).

The Trust believe that if we create an arts and media focus for the youth centre then we can create opportunities for young people to access a career in the cultural industries. This will simultaneously develop new spaces for the creation of a thriving cultural hub in the heart of the community. Our dream is to raise funds from both the current community, external grants and what we know to be a huge alumni of residents who once lived and worked on Rowner Estate in Gosport. The long term aim is that the YAMC becomes a beacon for young people in Gosport to express their creativity, grow in confidence and go on to work in an expanding cultural sector.

The Original 1960's Naval Rowner Estate

Our desire is to raise via crowdfunding the money to build our first phase of the much larger vision of a cultural hub. That is to create a community coffee shop called 'Coffee in the Square'. This first phase will require a ground floor extension on one side of the building to accommodate the coffee shop. This will enable the auditorium to increase in size and make the building more accessible. Income and awareness will be generated from Coffee in the Square' helping move the YAMC to a sustainable footing and cross subsidise the youth arts action group.