Charity is feeling the squeeze after its landlord – Croydon Council – makes it pay for all repairs and maintenance of its council-owned building. Now they are calling for public support at a fundraising festival on July 25
A Croydon woman is to run a 38-mile ultramarathon all the way around the boundary of the borough next month, to raise funds for one of the area’s longest-running youth organisations.
38-mile challenge: marathon runner Anna Shields is going the extra miles to help CYTO
Anna Shields is a trustee of CYTO, the Croydon Youth Theatre Organisation, and her first ultramarathon on Saturday, July 25, will have a finish line set up outside the Shoestring Theatre in South Norwood at the end of her gruelling challenge as part of a fund-raising campaign towards a £20,000 target to support the group’s projects and innovative programme.
Established in 1965, CYTO is the longest-running youth arts charity in Croydon. CYTO provides young people aged six to 19 with a supportive environment to explore acting, technical theatre, production design, scriptwriting and film-making.
Through weekly workshops and annual stage productions, CYTO acts as an authentic youth-led space, governed alongside a dedicated Youth Board who actively shape artistic programming, marketing and institutional policies. The charity explicitly targets barriers to arts access.
Shields is a professional theatre worker. Her ultramarathon route “will map out the very community CYTO serves”.
She told Inside Croydon: “As someone working in arts education, I see first-hand how transformative early involvement in theatre is.
“It’s not just about creating the performers of tomorrow, it’s about shaping well-rounded, confident people with crucial life skills. I joined the CYTO board to protect this lifeline for young people in the borough I am proud to call home. Running 38 miles around the edge of Croydon is a massive undertaking for me, but it pales in comparison to the barriers young people overcome every day.”
The fundraising event will burst into life at the Shoestring Theatre on Oakley Road from 4pm on July 25, as CYTO members, staff, and volunteers will undertake an array of individual sponsored events, ranging from intensive Hot Wings food challenges and dramatic hair-dyeing to video game speedrunning and ice bucket dunks.
CYTO wants Croydon residents to come along and get involved, in a day featuring refreshments, a raffle and interactive games.
At 7pm on the day of the fundraiser, the focus will shift to the stage and screen. The event will showcase a series of short films written, directed and produced by CYTO members over the past year, as well as live performances that demonstrate the exceptional raw talent within Croydon.
“For more than 60 years, CYTO has provided a consistent, welcoming, and inspiring space where young people can develop their creativity and essential life skills through the arts,” says Andrew McPherson, CYTO’s artistic director.
“Donations from this campaign are vital to ensuring that CYTO can continue delivering high-quality productions, expanding our workshops, and keeping our creative opportunities completely accessible to all young people, regardless of their financial circumstances.
“By supporting CYTO, donors are directly investing in our members’ artistic growth and the next generation of creative, confident, and engaged young people.”
Originally formed as a council youth service, n 2023 CYTO secured a 30-year lease on the Shoestring Theatre, “providing critical stability but also transferring total responsibility for building maintenance, strict compliance and emergency repairs onto the charity”, CYTO says.
“Rising facility costs have squeezed the charity’s resources, this public fundraising campaign is essential to protect the frontline creative work.”
CYTO remains a vital sanctuary amidst a near-total collapse of local authority youth provisions.
- The Shoestring Theatre is at Oakley Road, South Norwood, SE25 4XG
- Online booking is required online via www.cyto.org.uk/whats-on
- Sponsorship and direct donations can be made online at: www.cyto.org.uk/impact
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