Dave McNicholl is chief executive of Warrington Youth Club and writes a regular column for the Warrington Guardian

In 2010 Warrington Youth Club secured a one-year contract with Warrington Borough Council to provide a befriending service for disabled children and young people.

The idea was to provide a ‘buddy’ who was a young person themselves to support a disabled child or young person to access a range of social opportunities.

We secured the contract and Buddy Up was born. We were delighted to then secure funding from Children in Need to allow us to both sustain and develop the programme over the following three years.

In 2013 following several discussions with families of disabled children, who explained that they found a family trip to the cinema was very difficult as their child may need to walk around during the film or shout and make noises. In response to this situation, we developed the Buddy Up cinema nights, which have been run in various venues from community centres to farms.

The cinema nights provide families with a cinema experience, watching the current box office hits through a partnership with ‘Into Film’ and even the popcorn as well. We use venues that provide space for children and young people to be able to walk around and play games or talk to their buddy if they want to have a break from watching the big screen.

The key to the success of the cinema nights has been the ownership that children and young people have over the nights. Initially two friends ‘Zak and Kyle’ ran the cinema nights for five years until leaving the club to go to university. They handed over the baton to Niall who now coordinates the cinema nights.

There is far more on offer than just the film, on each of the fortnightly sessions Niall will prepare quizzes, fact sheets and nights themed on the movie. Each year there is a Buddy Up Oscars night when children, young people, volunteers and members of the team dress up in their finery to experience a full night on the red carpet.

Whilst we are working within current Covid restrictions we have continued to provide the buddy up cinema experience for disabled children. As restrictions lift further towards the end of June, we are planning to take our cinema nights to the Childrens Adventure Farm Trust, near Lymm.

If you would like more information about our Buddy Up film nights, please see our website warringtonyouthclub.co.uk or email Nuvvy Sibia nuvvys@warringtonyouthclub.co.uk