SPOT: CCYS Adopt Ifield Station

 SPOT: a slightly different format to the Roundtable discussions where we step back to Spotlight a Charity or in this case a Social Initiative making a positive difference in the local community.

Amanda Foster, Youth Worker In Charge with Crawley Community Youth Service (CCYS) shares why they recently adopted a neglected local train station and how quickly things improve when people decide to care. For this SPOTlight we’re outside Ifield Station in Crawley on a sunny day as the Adopt a Train Station project kicks off, bringing together local residents, youth workers, and young volunteers who want their station to feel cleaner, safer, and more welcoming. You’ll hear why visible fixes like litter picking, tackling graffiti, and better lighting are not just cosmetic changes but signals that a place is being looked after.

Rowena Tyler, Arun Valley Line Officer from Southeast Communities Rail Partnership explains how station adoption works, what support is available, and how volunteers can turn ideas into action through planning help, grant guidance, and partnerships with rail operators. Along the way, kids share what they’re excited to do and why “one small thing” can add up to something bigger.

We also hear Parveen Khan support this brilliant initiative with appreciation and recognition of the young volunteers. Positive impact is possible when communities stick with it - gardening groups, artwork, heritage restoration projects, and friendships that start with a single litter picker. If you’re in Sussex or Surrey and you travel these lines, there are stations still waiting for adopters, including Littlehaven, Crawley, and Three Bridges. 

Subscribe for more local stories that turn frustration into action, share this with someone who loves their neighbourhood, and leave us a review with one change you’d like to see at your local station.

Please click on 'Send a text' above & join our Facebook group to share your perspective and suggestions for future topics - Thank you for your interest! Clive.

Transcript

Welcome And Community Spotlight

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The statistics and sturry soapbox in the community. Supporting local charities, social initiatives, and events that make a refreshing difference. With us now we've got Amanda Foster from Crawley Community Youth Service. Hello.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Hello, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:15

On a very sunny day outside Ifield Station, what are we doing here?

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Okay, so today we are introducing to the community our Adopt a Train Station project. So I'm a youth worker at Dorman's Youth Centre and they approached me asking if I wanted to get involved in a project, adopt a train station. Never heard of it, didn't know what it was.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

And you thought, what a great idea.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Well, when I saw that it's it's to improve the community, I thought I'd have a look. So the crime rates are high, you know, the antisocial behaviour's high. So, and it's an opportunity to get the young people involved in a project that they can be proud of outside of the youth centre.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

I'm just conscious that this uh train has just turned up with lots of people getting off, um, and there's more kids turning up. What are we actually doing here today in adopting the station? Yes. What does that mean in real terms?

Rail Partnership Support And Next Steps

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Okay, so in real terms, today what we're asking for is for the community to get involved. We'd like tradies, we'd like kids to get involved, we'd like the neighbours to come and have their say on what they would or wouldn't like to see done at the train station. Um, we just want everybody to come together and just try and create something that's vibrant.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

So, with us now, then we've got Rowena uh Tyler from South East Communities Rail Partnership. Now you sort of own this line, don't you? And uh you got in touch with Amanda to come and adopt the station.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

That's right, it was actually the other way around. Amanda and Billy from the community, your youth community reached out to us. That's lovely. Really lovely. So, yes, I'm a community development officer for the Aaron Valley Line, 18 stations, starting and including Gatwick Airport and going through to Sleepy Bossum. I feel it's right, you know, in the middle of that, and it's fantastic that we've got somebody who wants to adopt the station. It really needs it. We've already made a start with litter picks, this lovely day today, an information day, and the ambition is to get the footbridge spruced up. There was some very unsightly graffiti on there. That's been cleaned up thanks to the pressure from this group, and that's been cleaned up, and now we're looking at artwork projects and perhaps a history project. So lovely.

Kids On Pride And Clean-Up

SPEAKER_01 2:21

So lots of voluntary difference where the local community come together, including the children, to make a difference.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

I'm Toby and I'm ten years old.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Ten years old, and are you excited for this adopt a station project?

SPEAKER_05 2:33

Yes I am.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

What particularly are you excited about?

SPEAKER_05 2:37

Um doing litter picking and helping the station. My name's Harper and I'm eight years old.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Why should anyone give up their time and do this?

SPEAKER_06 2:48

Um, because it's helping the world. Even no, even even if it's just one small thing, it's helping a lot throughout the world.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

And what one thing would you like to do for Ifield Station?

SPEAKER_06 3:00

Um I would make it I would want to make it as tidy as I could and um make it look really nice.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

We need more people in the world like you, I think. Um and over here, what's your name and how old are you?

SPEAKER_07 3:11

My name's Lily and I'm 10. I'm looking forward to uh cleaning up the station and paint some stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Oh, paint some stuff. Do you all belong to Dorman's Youth Centre?

SPEAKER_05 3:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yeah, and what do you enjoy doing at the Dorman's Youth Centre?

SPEAKER_05 3:25

Um I enjoy making new friends, um spending time with others and playing with people.

SPEAKER_06 3:35

I enjoy doing activities um and bonding with loads of people there. I like making friends and playing games.

Success Stories From Other Stations

SPEAKER_01 3:45

I have to say, well done to the three of you for getting involved here and being brave enough to talk to us on the radio. Thank you so much and good luck with adopting the station here at IField. Well done, give yourselves a round of applause. There we go, nice yay, well done. What other stations locally have been adopted and what difference have you seen that's occurred there?

How To Adopt A Station

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Along the Aran Valley line, we have a lot. Many of the stations have been adopted. We have gardening groups, we have at Poolborough a heritage signal box, a grade two listed signal box, was taken over, restored by some young offenders and then taken over by a community group who are going to open it up as a heritage project. Lots of litter picking, lots of artwork. Arundel is one of our jewels in our crown on the Aran Valley line. And the good thing is these young people are the commuters and the travellers of the future. So, as well as getting them to adopt their station, we're going to be teaching them about respect and safety around the railways. We might be able to get them to come out on a train. Southern Rail GTR are quite generous with tickets if they know that it's going to be a good educational enterprise, and we'll take them out and make them see, ask them to tell us what they'd like to see at stations and what would help them to travel with confidence.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Brilliant, that's a lovely initiative. Now, anyone listening to this across Sussex and they think, oh, I quite like that line. I travel up and down there quite a bit. If they want to get involved with adopting a station, how might they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_02 5:12

I'm your girl, I'm your woman. So if it's on the Aaron Valley Line, which as I say is Gatwick through to Bosum, do get in touch with me at South East Communities Rail Partnership. We have a website, so it's www.southeastcrp.org. My name's Rowena, just ask for me. If you're on another line, we have ten, I have nine other colleagues. We work right across the patch: Kent, Surrey, East Sussex, and West Sussex. So if you think I like the idea, but I've got friends or relatives living somewhere else, again have a look at our websites and we love to have people coming along and we will help you to set up volunteering, constitution, how to draw down funding, we can get you grants and so on, and just give you that hand holding to get you up and running.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

It's a lovely idea, especially in the community where there's so much trouble, so much negativity. It's nice to have a positive story about how people can make a difference to the local railway lines and the stations. Um on your line, which which other stations are still are still waiting for someone to adopt them?

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Well, Little Haven is looking for an adopter. Okay. Yeah, so that's quite close to here. So if anyone would like to adopt Little Little Haven. Crawley, we have a little bit of interest but not a formal station partner. Some schools put up artwork from time to time. So there's interest for Crawley. If there's interest for Crawley, please get in touch. And three bridges.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Oh wow, okay, three bridges, Crawley, Little Haven. Uh fantastic in the area. So if this sounds like you, whether you're uh a school group, maybe you're a company, anyone can adopt the station and you help with some funding and some education and support them through that journey.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Indeed. We've even had individuals. We had one lady come up and just with her own litter picker asking if she could pick up the litter because she found it unsightly. And after a little while others came and helped. She's now ended up not only with a good gardening group but with a group of friends.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Brilliant, fantastic work. Thank you very much, Rowena. Thank you.

Why Community Spirit Matters

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

And of course, Parvine Khan is here supporting this as well. It's amazing what they're doing, isn't it? It's just got started with Ifield Station.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

I think it's amazing, yeah. And I think it's good for the youngsters to come and get involved. And Ifield is very much about community and community work and the community spirit. And Amanda and CCYS are just amazing, they're an amazing team. Um so yeah, I think it's a brilliant idea, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

And I've always got a lot of time for anyone trying to make a positive difference in the community, especially when there's so many headwinds, so much negativity around, and this is a fantastic example of um of someone bucking that trend and really bringing the community together and making a difference for Ifield Station.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yes, I think I agree with that, Clive. I think it's so important that we represent but we also acknowledge what we have in Crawley, and Ifield Station serves a lot of people, doesn't it? So I think acknowledgement, recognition, and I think getting together as a community is very important.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

And it makes a massive difference to the station, the perception we just heard the graffiti being cleared off here in Ifield, but also Crawley Three Bridges, uh, Little Haven, waiting to be adopted. Anyone at home thinking, yeah, shall I, shan't I? What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

No, definitely adopt a train station. I think it's important. Again, it's all about community spirit, it's about bringing everybody together, it's about celebrating history as well, actually.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

And having fun, having fun do it as well for the good.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, definitely. I think celebrating the history but also the future and the visions we have for the places that we live in.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Lovely, thank you very much, Parvi. And hopefully, we'll see you at our party on the 11th of July as well, um, in Broadfield Community Centre, where we get in Tess's Kitchen community together. Hopefully, uh we'll see you there as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Yeah, definitely. I'll be there on the 11th of July.

Youth Service Work And How To Join

SPEAKER_01 8:49

So we have another volunteer here. Uh, what's your name and how old are you?

SPEAKER_04 8:53

I'm Aisha and I'm 11 years old.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

11 years old, and what are you excited about? So to adopt the station project. Uh what are you particularly excited about?

SPEAKER_04 9:02

I'm looking forward to helping the station be a better and safer place.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

That's a good idea, a safer place because sometimes people feel a bit threatened when they come off, especially at night time. And how are you gonna do that?

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Uh by putting lights and making it like a bit more cleaner.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Absolutely cleaner. I think there's already been some litter picking, and I think there's gonna be posters and other things, so it's quite a creative project you're gonna get involved with, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 9:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

And why should any other children listening to this also join in with the fun?

SPEAKER_04 9:32

So you would have something to say to your friends that you're proud of, and you'll be able to uh make a difference, make a positive difference to the community.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

And and do you enjoy the youth centre side of things as well?

SPEAKER_04 9:46

At the youth centre I enjoy dance because we do lots of shows and it's just really fun to be there.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

I love your passion when you're getting into this. What what what got you into this sort of work to start off with?

SPEAKER_03 9:59

Um, so I started as a volunteer, so I had young children myself, didn't know what I wanted to do, um, didn't know that there was a youth service in Crawley, but when I did, I started volunteering there um after in and out of different sorts of work. I've been youth worker for eight years now. Um I've just taken over as youth worker in charge at Dorman's, so that's a new role which allows me a little bit more responsibility to plan activities and events and get involved in stuff like this.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

And make a bigger impact, a bigger splash in the community. Absolutely. Quite often you see it on Facebook popping up. We're talking about Crawley Community Youth Service, but sometimes you see CCYS. Yes. Obviously, that's what we're talking about. And uh what are some of the other things you do to make a difference?

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Um so we're providing at CCYS, we're providing free activities available to children like age 8 to 17. So they can be football, street dance, arts, along with many other projects outside. We do uh the pantomime every year, we do shows at the Horf with forward motion, getting involved in that. And we do we've got trips to Wakehurst Place coming up, and so the kids can get involved in that at a very discounted price, and we're just making sure that the kids are heard and they're getting involved in things that they haven't got opportunities to do outside of school.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

And it'd be fantastic to have a chat about our party coming up on the 11th of July and see if we can get some performance there as well. We'll take that separately.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Absolutely, yeah. We're gonna get involved in that. So if there's any fates or anything, we like to get involved, we like to spread the words. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

And if people want to get in touch with you, how would they get if they like what they're hearing here and they think, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to reach out to CCYS?

SPEAKER_03 11:43

Yeah, so they can add us on uh Facebook, which is Crawley Community Youth Service, or they can email info at ccys.org.uk.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Thank you very much, Amanda.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Tell us what do you think? Leave a comment below or click on send a text. Thank you for listening to the Sussex and Surrey soapbox.