Thanks to a NSW government grant, the Kiama Youth Centre will celebrate its 20th birthday in style.
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Awarded one of 20 Partnership Grants by Indent, part of Music NSW and funded by Arts NSW, Kiama Youth Centre yesterday received a $2500 injection to fund a large-scale outdoor concert event in April.
"We're celebrating 20 years of the youth centre with a program to showcase the talents of a lot of young people," said senior youth worker Andrew Chatfield.
Up to 16 acts will play both in Hindmarsh Park and inside the youth centre in April, in an event jointly celebrating the anniversary and Youth Week.
Mr Chatfield said a team of dedicated young people had formed an event management team and were being mentored by the centre's senior youth workers in how to apply for such grants and plan events.
"We're passing on our skills to help them on a project to show their skills and what they've learnt," he said.
Event management team member Joel King said mentoring provided by youth centre staff had helped the team in attaining the grant.
"It's taught us all a few things about how to manage an event like this, what to organise and how to do it," he said.
Chris Zajko, project manager at Music NSW and Indent, said the grassroots grant was designed to help organisations gradually build from small events to large community ventures.
"This was a grassroots grant, aimed at new applicants who haven't been funded before," he said.
"Once they have used that grant on a smaller event, we want them to come back and apply for a bigger grant. It's to help them build up to a bigger event."
Mr Chatfield said the youth centre was open to applications from musicians and other young people to be a part of the event.