Saving CYTO

CYTO has been my second home since I was 14. I am now nearly 20. I'd always looked for somewhere like CYTO to perform and be creative but everywhere else was majorly out of my price range. I had basically resigned myself to school plays when a friend told me about this place called Croydon Youth Theatre. Since walking into to that Friday night worshop 6 years ago I have never looked back. CYTO is such an endearing, encouraging, accepting place that I literally can't comprehend why the council would want to shut it down. It has been one of the only the places that I have truly felt free enough to be able to express myself and cultivate my skills and experience and it has had a massive role in making me the person I am today.
I have made so many good friends there, most of which that I am sure will be lifelong ones. I have had some of the very best experiences of my LIFE there and if it closed I literally don't know what I would do with my time. To shut down CYTO would be an offence, not only to the arts and young people but to Croydon as a whole. It is one of the few truly beautiful things that croydon has to offer and the council are ripping the heart out of it for the sake of something as lifeless as money.

The council needs to realise that CYTO's young people and staff are not just another community youth group. They won't be trampled or ignored. The council is meant to be the voice of the people and we have clear evidence that they are not listening. They can carry on thinking they can smother us like this but they have another thing coming - we will not be silenced.