The Elgin Youth Development Group was established in 1998 in response to concerns that young people did not have a place to meet and socialise.

We now run a youth café called The Warehouse and offer a full range of youth work related services and activities including open evenings, after school clubs, holiday clubs, cooking and fitness classes and employability opportunities.

Our aim is to guide and support young people to realise their full potential. We do this by providing:

• projects and activities that address the needs of our young people and helps them develop their confidence, leadership skills and well being
• opportunities that positively influence them to become valued and active members of the community

We also run a social enterprise called The Inkwell. This initiative enables us to increase our sustainability by offering meeting rooms and a Community Kitchen for hire as well as catering services.  As importantly, it allows us to offer employability opportunities to young people who need additional support to transition into work.

Our Inkwell Community Kitchen is a modern and fully accessible training facility from which we run workshops to introduce young people to healthy eating, from cooking on a budget to international cuisine. We also hire out this space for community groups and members of the public to use to share their love of food.

In 2021, we opened the doors to our other social enterprise, Cafe@The Warehouse which is run as a training cafe for young people to develop the skills & knowledge needed to gain employment. Trainees gain hands on experience in a hospitality environment while getting support from our team to gain qualifications & develop their CV.