Our story in pictures
2005 The CUBE set up as a charity
2005 The CUBE set up as a charity
2005 The CUBE set up as a charity
From the vision of a local businessman The CUBE was set up as a charitable company, With members of the churches in Market Harborough a café for young people in the Settling Rooms on Sainsburys carpark was opened.
A grant from Harborough District Council and donations from churches allowed the charity to employ a full-time youth worker for 3 years.
2008 A difficult year
2005 The CUBE set up as a charity
2005 The CUBE set up as a charity
The CUBE nearly folded because of illness, the youth worker moving on and the main source of recurrent funding drying up.
Following an initiative from Churches Together in Harborough, the Charity was taken over with three new Trustees who set about finding short-term funding.
2009 Homeless
2005 The CUBE set up as a charity
2011 The Old Bowling Pavilion
With the council looking to redevelop the Settling Rooms The CUBE needed to find a new venue, sufficient funds and more volunteers. They decided to spend their last £4000 on a Youth Development Worker.
The after-school clubs moved to the Methodist Hall and the charity had 4 months to kick start the cafe project. With a grant from the council they kept the youth café running, paid the worker and started planning for the future, knowing the Settling Rooms was not a long-term home.
2011 The Old Bowling Pavilion
2011 The Old Bowling Pavilion
2011 The Old Bowling Pavilion
The council approached The CUBE to ask if we were interested in the old Bowling Pavilion on Symington’s Rec.
It didn’t take long for us to realise that this was precisely what we had been looking for.
2012 Fundraising challenge
2011 The Old Bowling Pavilion
2012 Fundraising challenge
We set ourselves ambitious plans to raise £250,000 and rebuild the old pavilion into a new youth centre we could be proud of.
We signed a long-term peppercorn lease with the council for the disused Bowling Pavilion and received a grant from Market Harborough and the Bowdens Charity for running costs. This was the start of becoming a sustainable Charity.
The Youth Forum helped shape the charity and was a space for young people to make a difference to their world..
2013 New projects
2011 The Old Bowling Pavilion
2012 Fundraising challenge
In addition to providing spaces for young people the charity began offering counselling from a specialist youth counsellor. This was supported by The Bower House counselling service and funded by the council.
The Esteem Team was established and they began teaching sex and relationship lessons in Welland Park Academy, Kibworth Mead and Robert Smyth Academy.
Referrals for mentoring from schools and other professionals was the beginning of a mentoring project.
2013 Rock on the Rec
2014 New youth centre commissioned
2014 New youth centre commissioned
The CUBE worked with the council and Room for Music to run an annual music festival on Symington Rec.
It wouldn’t be long until we became landlords and Room for Music leased land from us to built a music studio.
2014 New youth centre commissioned
2014 New youth centre commissioned
2014 New youth centre commissioned
In May 2014 The CUBE youth centre was completed. We had raised £250000 to see it built by local architects, builders, plumbers, electricians, roofers and many volunteers.
2014 and Pizza Oven
2014 New youth centre commissioned
2014 and Pizza Oven
As part of the build young people were commissioned to build the pizza oven with the expertise and support of the builders, giving us years of memories of delicious pizza.
A generous grant from the National Lottery furnished and equipped the centre.
Donors and funders of The CUBE youth centre
2015 Young People Thriving
2015 Harborough Youth for Harborough Jobs
2015 Harborough Youth for Harborough Jobs
The staff and trustees spent a memorable day together thinking about the future.
Seeing young people thriving in their communities became our vision and this has set the focus of our work ever since.
"Our vision is to see the young people of Market Harborough thriving in their communities."
2015 Harborough Youth for Harborough Jobs
2015 Harborough Youth for Harborough Jobs
2015 Harborough Youth for Harborough Jobs
We began working with schools and local businesses to prepare young people for the world of work.
The project supported young people who would benefit from an informal or varied educational approach. They were placed with local employers in fields that interested them for work experience, and they achieved an informal employment skills qualification.
2016 New logo
2015 Harborough Youth for Harborough Jobs
The charity decided it was time for young people to design a new logo for The CUBE.
A marketing specialist worked with the youth groups to capture the essence of what The CUBE meant to them.
The golden tree symbolised young people thriving as they enjoy being together.
2016 Continued funding for open youth clubs
The evening youth clubs continued to be popular and the Market Harborough and Bowdens Charity generously funded the next 3 years open youth work at The CUBE on Wednesday and Friday evenings.
2016 Youth Worker training
2016 Youth Worker training
The CUBE became a place where student youth workers could come alongside qualified youth workers and learn.
This included students on placement from the Baptist Church in Harborough, the Harborough Anglican Team and the universities in Leicester and Northampton.
2017 Gardening Club
2016 Youth Worker training
The bowling green no longer looked as pristine as it once had but it was a great space for young people to learn how to grow vegetables.
The kitchen indoors helped turn their dedication into healthy meals and soups.
This space is now cared for by Kids Play.
2018 Vacancy
2021 National Lottery Funding
2020 Outdoor Gazebo
The youth worker who had seen The CUBE through so much change moved on and the charity was left with an enormous hole to fill.
This was a challenging time as we sought to fill vacancies and keep The CUBE delivering the youth work projects.
2020 Outdoor Gazebo
2021 National Lottery Funding
2020 Outdoor Gazebo
We built a huge gazebo making our outdoor space accessible to young people through the pandemic.
Despite the restrictions we found ways to meet in small groups and provide young people with space to meet together safely.
2021 National Lottery Funding
2021 National Lottery Funding
2021 National Lottery Funding
We appointed a Charity Manager and a National Lottery application for £250000 funding was successful, allowing us to grow our Wellbeing Project and our School Partnerships.
By 2025-26 we are expecting 70-80 under 18s to have benefited from counselling and mentoring and NN young people to have attended school drop-ins and after school clubs.
2021 Trail Blazers
2022 Counselling service takes off
2022 Counselling service takes off
Trailblazers was a group working with year 6 children getting ready for secondary school.
These young people were referred by primary schools often because children were fnding change difficult after the pandemic.
2022 Counselling service takes off
2022 Counselling service takes off
2022 Counselling service takes off
For our counselling service to become established we needed a space for counselling. By moving the office we created our first counselling room which has been used continually ever since.
2022 Let's Play
2022 Counselling service takes off
2023 New Counselling caravan
Established a long term partnership with a small local business running outdoor play for pre-schoolers.
They keep our garden creative and productive.
2023 New Counselling caravan
2023 School partnerships growing
2023 New Counselling caravan
Much of The CUBE counselling and mentoring takes place in schools but we also see young people at The CUBE.
We soon outgrew our counselling room and an old caravan came to our rescue. This is a temporary solution until we find a more permanent space.
2023 School partnerships growing
2023 School partnerships growing
2023 School partnerships growing
Regular lunch groups and counselling support in Robert Smyth and Welland park.
Referrals for counselling and mentoring.
More recently, Kibworth Mead has counsellors in place too.
2025 The CUBE is 20 years old
2023 School partnerships growing
2023 School partnerships growing
This year we celebrate 20 years serving the young people in Market Harborough.
We continue to apply for funding to continue the work that was started 20 years ago.
If our story has spoken to you, please consider a donation.
Our vision is to see young people thriving
We are looking for trustees
Do you have time to help direct and shape our work with young people in Market Harborough.