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Established 1968

Somewhere to go, someone to talk to.

Five nights a week at the Old Bobbin Mill, for every young person in Calderdale aged 9 to 25. Free to walk into. £2 to stay.
See this week’s sessionsTalk to a youth worker
412
Young people a week
58 yrs
On the same street
11
Sessions every week
Charity no. 1069412

What the year actually looked like

Four numbers from our 2025 annual return, published in full for the Charity Commission and for anyone else who wants to read it.
96%

Have somewhere safe to be

From our 2025 members’ survey — 214 responses, run independently by Calderdale Youth Voice.
1,900

Street contacts a year

Our detached team works Boothtown, Ovenden and the town centre on Friday and Saturday nights.
£4.10

Cost per young person, per session

What it costs us to keep the doors open, all in. Grants and donations cover the rest.
31

Volunteers on the rota

Half of them came here as members first, which is the number we are proudest of.

Find a session that fits

Pick an age group and we’ll show what runs that week, where in the building it happens and what it costs. No booking, no forms — just turn up.
Who is it for?

11 sessions · Every age

Monday
4.00 – 6.00pm

Junior Club

Main Hall
School years 5–6Free
6.30 – 9.00pm

Bike Workshop

The Yard
School years 10–13Free
Tuesday
2.00 – 4.00pm

Moving-On Clinic

The Office
Care leavers, 18–25Free
6.30 – 9.00pm

Senior Night

Main Hall
School years 10–13£2
Wednesday
4.00 – 6.00pm

Homework & Hot Tea

The Loft
School years 7–9Free
7.00 – 9.00pm

Music Room

Weaving Room
School years 7–9£2
Thursday
6.30 – 9.00pm

Girls’ Night

Main Hall
School years 7–9£2
7.00 – 9.00pm

Bronze DofE

The Loft
School years 10–13£68 a year
Friday
6.00 – 10.00pm

Friday Late

Whole building
School years 10–13£2
Saturday
10.00am – 12.00pm

Saturday Juniors

Main Hall
School years 5–6Free
10.00am – 1.00pm

Leavers’ Drop-in

The Loft
Care leavers, 18–25Free
Times are term-time. Everyone is welcome at every session regardless of ability to pay — if the £2 is a problem, say so at the desk and it stops being one.

Fifty-eight years on the same street

Calderbank was started in 1968 by four women from Hopwood Lane who were tired of watching teenagers stand in the rain outside the chip shop. They rented the ground floor of a disused bobbin mill for £3 a week. The Trust bought the building outright in 1974 and has never left it, which is the single reason a session here still costs £2 when almost nowhere else in West Yorkshire can manage it. Three generations of some families have come through the same door. We are open five nights a week and Saturday mornings, term-time and holidays, for every young person in Calderdale from School Year 5 to their eighteenth birthday — and to twenty-five for care leavers.

Three ways in

Open access

Eleven sessions a week you can walk into with no referral, no form and no waiting list. Junior Club, Senior Night, Friday Late, Homework & Hot Tea and Saturday Juniors. Free or £2, hot meal included on the late nights.

Programmes you finish

Bronze DofE at £68 for the year, Earn-a-Bike free over six weeks, and Bronze and Silver Arts Award through the Music Room. Things with an end and a certificate, because not everything should be open-ended.

Detached work

Marcus and two volunteers walk Boothtown, Ovenden and the town centre on Friday and Saturday nights. Around 1,900 conversations a year with young people who will not come to a building — so we go to them instead.

In their words

Five people who have been in the building — a member, a parent, a school, a funder and a volunteer.

Leah, 16

Member since Year 7

“I came on a Tuesday because my mate did and I had nothing else on. Four years later I’m doing my Silver and I help run Junior Club.”

Slide 1 of 4

The four questions we get at the door

Asked most evenings, usually by a parent standing in the doorway with their coat still on.

Yes. There is no waiting list, no referral and no form to fill in first. Come to the Hopwood Lane door ten minutes after a session starts, tell whoever is on the desk your name and school year, and you are in. We will ask for a parent or carer contact number before you leave, and that is the whole of it.

Junior Club, the Bike Workshop, Homework & Hot Tea, Saturday Juniors and the Leavers’ Drop-in are free. Everything else is £2 a session, which includes a hot meal on Senior Night and Friday Late. If £2 is a problem, say so at the desk — we keep a bursary for exactly that and nobody is asked why.

School Year 5 through to your 18th birthday for the main programme, and up to 25 for the Leavers’ Drop-in and the Moving-On Clinic if you have been in care. Sessions are grouped by school year rather than age, because a Year 7 and a Year 11 want very different evenings.

Every member of staff and every volunteer holds an enhanced DBS check with the children’s barred list, renewed every three years. All four permanent staff are safeguarding-trained to Level 3 and Dawn Mercer is our Designated Safeguarding Lead. Our policy is on the Safeguarding page and we will hand you a paper copy if you ask.

Stand behind it

The building is paid for. The evenings are not.

Calderbank has never charged a young person more than £2 to walk through the door, and we are not about to start. Regular giving is what makes that possible — 68% of our running costs now come from people in Calderdale rather than from grants.
£8 a month
Keeps one young person in club for a whole term, hot meal included.
£25 a month
Pays a qualified youth worker for an evening of detached work in town.
£60 one-off
Buys the tools and parts for one Earn-a-Bike course place.
Set up a monthly giftVolunteer on the rota
Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 · Registered charity 1069412 · Accounts published every October

Ask us anything

Questions about a first visit, volunteering, room hire or a referral. Dawn or Ick answers these — replies within one working day, and same day if it is about a young person.
Find us

Calderbank Youth Trust

  • The Old Bobbin Mill, Hopwood Lane, Halifax HX1 5ER
  • 01422 486 210
  • Mo-Th 15:30-21:00, Fr 15:30-22:00, Sa 10:00-16:00