Mingling with others, wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets,you could think James Plant and Alex Whitehead were dignitaries being shown around the new, partially-finished, multi-million pound youth centre in Gorton.

They are in fact regular local teenagers.

Except they are more passionate than anyone about what this new £6.6 million facility can be, as they have been given a chance to shape what it will look like.

The facility, on the site of the former Gorton baths, has been funded primarily by a whopping £6 million donation from Salford bookie Fred Done.

It is due to open early next year and hopes to attract up to 200 youngsters - aged 8-19 - to twenty different activities every night.

Open 40 hours a week, the youth centre will have a huge sports hall, football pitch, climbing wall, boxing and martial arts studio, IT suite, recording studio, hair and nails studio and training kitchen amongst other facilities, will be staffed by over 50 trained youth workers and will cost just 50p a time to get in.

James and Alex were among a group of local youngsters brought together to have their say on the centre's design and running.

The pair, both 18 and from Levenshulme have helped come up with the name HideOut Youth Zone - a play on its location on Hyde Road - as well as the logo, and they have even been involved in the interview process for staff.

Bosses say the centre must be shaped by young people if it is going to be used by them.

As he surveys the progress made so far on the building on the corner of Queens Avenue near Belle Vue, James is clear that it could make a huge difference to life for people like him in the working class neighbourhood.

"It feels me with pride to be honest." he says.

"Whenever I pass it on the bus on Hyde Road I see it and tell people I'm with that I've helped do that.

"Growing up in this area – if I was to describe it in one word, it would be tough.

"It's tough because there's so little money put into the area and there's so little provision for young people that you are almost left to fend for yourself, which is unfair on them, given someone from Didsbury might have a different background from someone in north Manchester or Salford.

"Other parts of Manchester will get different opportunities.

"And that's unfair.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

" Just because we were born in a different postcode doesn't mean we're less valuable than anybody else.

"It's definitely tough but there's also a big sense of community in east Manchester.

"There's a big sense of community in Gorton, same in Levenshulme, Longsight, Ardwick, Beswick.

"And it helps people find their voice and define who they are.

"But there simply aren't the opportunities.

"I never went to youth clubs as a kid because there simply weren't any.

"It wasn't something that was advertised, it wasn't something that was out there.

"But this is something that would have helped me and my life.

"Sometimes people don't see a future via an academic route.

"They may see a future in crime or dropping out of school.

"But that's not what we want, or the government wants.

"You want people to stay in education.

"But I think this place will provide them with what sometimes school doesn't necessarily do.

"It'll provide the resources so they can be who they what they want to be and help them get the qualifications to make something of themselves."

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Alex is a photography student in Manchester.

Photography will be among the 20 activities a night on offer, as well as counselling and support for issues such as alcohol and drug abuse and careers advice.

"Words can't describe how this area is going to be in a year's time," Alex says.

"I feel like people turn to crime for their own issues and because they don't have a place to go.

"But now this will be here for them to come and express themselves I think crime is definitely going to go down.

"It was very important people from here were involved.

"We know what it's like to be a young person in this day and age, we know what they want and what they need to get through in life."

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

HideOut is aimed at youngsters not just in Gorton but across east Manchester - from Ardwick, Longsight, Levenshulme, Beswick and Clayton.

It will be run by the charity OnSide, who have 13 centres across the country, including the successful Manchester Youth Zone, previously known as The Factory, in Harpurhey.

Adam Farricker, 34, who grew up nearby has been appointed as the Gorton centre's CEO.

And he says he hopes it can 'challenge stereotypes' of young people in east Manchester and help them flourish.

"I'm a lad from this area, I grew up in Gorton and Longsight, started my career in youth work as a 16 year-old, and it changed my life" he says.

Watch: Dave Whelan talking about the Wigan Youth Zone - which Fred Done said inspired his vision

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"Young people in this part of the city do face significant challenges compared to their peers, both nationally and locally.

"But they have the same aspirations and they have the same potential if not more than some of their peers.

"They just haven't got the opportunities to reach that full potential and that's where we come in.

"I could spend all day talking about the issues in the area and the negative statistics that highlight the need for it.

"But that wouldn't be fair because the community is great, everyone comes together, they work hard and work together, this is a going to be a beacon and a hub that brings that community together.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

"For some young people a youth worker will be the first adult they have voluntarily had a relationship with.

"Your teacher, your mam, your dad, your gran, your social worker, you don't choose those adults they are enforced on you.

"With youth work it's voluntary engagement.

"You're building trust.

"I got very lucky. Within my peer group there's adults that are serving long prison sentences, I went to four funerals of my friends within the year that I left school.

"I could have gone one way or the other.

"But the consistent adult in my life was a youth worker.

"He challenged my behaviours, he provided support.

"I got lucky as at the time there were only street youth workers, who would walk around the estate, not facilities like this.

"But they continued to work with me and support me through that period and it inspired me to give back, which was the start of my career.

"And I hope we inspire hundreds of thousands of young people - not necessarily to do youth work, but to get involved in the community and help other young people."

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Alongside Fred Done’s donation, Manchester City Council has chipped in- contributing £1.5m and providing the land free of charge, as well as helping with running costs.

Fred, who was unmasked as the project's previously mystery benefactor, said he was moved to make the huge donation after being invited to visit a centre also run by OnSide in Wigan by former Wigan Atheltic chairman Dave Whelan.

"I didn't want to go, I wanted my dinner, but I went and I was completely blown away by it and it niggled at me for about 18 months, thinking 'Manchester should have one of these.'

"And this is the dream come true.

"This was my dream and I'm glad to be part of it.

"With austerity and what's been happening over the past, I'd say 20 years, I think the youth have got a raw deal.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

"We talk about stabbings and muggings and such like, I think that if you put things like this together for people where they have got some purpose, some enjoyment, they've got somewhere to go.

"It's been proven when you open a club like this, the crime rate goes down.

"And I am sure that's what it will do in this area.

"I don't care whether you're rich or poor – no kid is born bad, no kid is born good, it's the examples that are set and that's what we want to do, give them an example and something to work for.

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"There's talent and good people from every walk of life and we will produce them from Gorton.

"It's one of the poorest parts of Manchester and it will be great to put something here we be can proud of.

"When I was a kid a youth club was a table tennis table and a snooker table.

"I want this to be the best youth club in the world."

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