A youth worker has described the moment a young girl admitted to giving up football due to the costs.
The Alchemy Youth Club based on Coronation Road in Crosby provides "vital" services for children aged between 11 to 18 from self-defense classes, to employment outreach programmes and most importantly making sure a "child never goes home hungry".
With funding being slashed to youth services due to the cost of living crisis a group of dedicated employees at the Alchemy Youth Club are working to maintain that a "safe space" continues to be provided for children in the area.
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Shannon Bryan, youth lead at Alchemy said: "Our job is to make sure that the kids enjoy themselves but beyond that, we want to provide them with whatever they need. Some children come in and want to get away from it all and have a quiet minute on their own.
"Others just want to use the sports hall and run around, either way, we want to be able to do that for them but it's hard, especially with a lack of funding going into community services and it is not always assessable."
During the pandemic, Shannon implemented free meals that would be available every session for children. She said that "the same children" were staying behind while others went out to get food. She said: "In general we are still able to offer meals every session to make sure kids go home with something in their stomach.
"I was seeing some children going out and going to the shop to get snacks and the same children each week would be left behind.
"It is something that we keep having conversations about, how do we keep supporting the young people. How do we be there for families and children. The meals do help but we are always looking to support in any way we can."
Shannon said that for children who are struggling her team must be "aware of all the services in the area". The aim is to help any child or family who might be struggling "emotionally or financially".
Shannon who is from Litherland said: "We have had kids come to us and say they need uniforms, food and even just being able to do things. I had a conversation with a young girl a few months ago who wanted to play football, she started training, and then she realised it was going to be a lot more expensive than she thought.
"So she was not able to move forward with football. It is hard to hear those conversations especially with young people trying to find ways to enjoy themselves and escape from the stresses they have. That is why we are here to try and take some of those stresses away."
To combat this Shannon uses the youth club to provide services and activities for the children who might "not be able to access them anywhere else". Recently she contacted the local football team Marine FC to provide free training sessions for the children.
She said: "It is difficult seeing kids struggle especially when you know how incredible they are and they have so much compassion. We need to make sure that there are spaces for our young people and where they do feel safe and feel like they can be themselves.
"So it is a shame when places like this get closed down so we do need to stay on top of them and make sure we are lifting places like this up. The support that we and others in this community provide is invaluable."
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