Susanna Freymark
When the Casino Youth Hub opened in August, 2025, Casino RSM Club chief executive John Walker said there would be funding for the centre for the next five years.
“Possibly forever,” he said to the people gathered for the opening of the hub on Walker Street on August 22.
Less than a year later the hub has closed.
“The Youth Hub has disappointingly not been operating for many months,” Mr Walker said.
“It didn’t really gain traction as we had hoped and its use by existing groups and organisations was low.
“The youth drop in component didn’t take on because of supervision restrictions and a general lack of interest. To continue and be successful would have required a totally different management model and staffing which was not possible for us to achieve alone.”
When youth hub coordinator Bianca Rayner left, Mr Walker said, “it left a hole in our plans and replacing her with multiple people with the right skill base proved difficult.”
Ms Rayner said she resigned for “personal reasons to focus on my family.”
She said the youth hub needed critical infrastructure support.
“It needed air-conditioning and it needed youth workers available after school every day,” she said.
Ms Rayner said she applied for a grant for air-conditioning but didn’t get it.
Mr Walker said that for a project like the Casino Youth Hub to truly succeed requires the support of government at all levels which wasn’t there.
“The Club tried to make it work alone but couldn’t,” he said.
The youth hub property at Walker Street is still being used by the boxing club where Luke Watts and Luke Allan run regular classes.
The RSM snooker club will soon move in and establish a base there, Mr Walker said.