Youth center El Padrino in the Kloosterveen district in Assen may remain open for a year longer. The municipality has decided this together with initiator Gerwin Meertens.
The youth center opened at the beginning of this year. It was initially a one-year pilot, which has now been extended for another year.
Initiator Meertens is happy with the shift. “We always had the intention to continue. One year is short, especially because we had to build everything up. We have seen that things are going well for a few months now. An average of 30 to 35 young people come every Saturday evening.”
The youth center will continue on the same footing, but it also has plans for the future. “We may want to expand the activities, but we will discuss this next week,” says Meertens. The conditions to visit El Padrino remain the same. So young people should join El Pardrino and come from the Kloosterveen district.
The arrival of the youth center led to questions from local residents. The residents of the Hertenlaan have united in the local residents’ collective De Hoogspanning. The local residents were afraid of nuisance, among other things, but according to Meertens this is not the case. “There have been zero reports, there has been no nuisance and nothing has happened. So everything is positive. We are very happy with that.”
At El Padrino, young people aged 13 to 17 can play pool, there is a PlayStation, but the most important thing is to get together and chill.