The staff and volunteers at Cwmbran Centre for Young People held an open day earlier this week to show young people and their families around.
They wanted to hear people’s views on what the centre could offer and show off some of the recent improvements they’ve made thanks to a grant.
The landmark building next to the town centre opened in 1987.
Laura Ellis, CCYP’s manager, said: “The open day today was more of a youth consultation to ask the young people what they want from the centre, what activities they’d like to see here, how they would use and see the centre in the future.
“Parents and families have been here since 12pm engaging with staff. They’ve been taking part in part in activities. They’ve been in the new gaming room.
“They’ve really engaged well and given us some hints and tips around how we can use the centre in the future. It’s been really beneficial.
“It’s around how we can have more young people walk through the door. When young people come in, it’s around what they want from the centre. I’ve got lots of innovative ideas that I could bring into the centre. That’s not necessarily what young people want.”
During my visit, I spotted various boards on the walls where people had written down their suggestions and views. There were around 20 young people in the main room chatting, laughing, listening to music, eating, and some were playing football outside.
Laura said: “So it was opening it up to see what they want. It’s their centre. It was giving them the chance to tell us what they want from it.
“We’ve put a games room in so for the first time here we’ve got a gaming room which has worked out really well.”
The centre also has a gym for young people to use and keep fit.
Some of the centre’s rooms have been fitted with smart TVs, speakers and video conferencing equipment so they can offer better quality training to the people on some of their programmes such as Jobs Growth Wales.
Outside organisations can hire the rooms for meetings, events or training sessions.