If You Can’t Get There, Is It Really an Opportunity?
At The Dome, we talk a lot about opportunity. Opportunity to try something new. To discover a talent. To build confidence, make friends, develop new skills and imagine a different future. But there’s a question we don’t talk about enough: what happens when a young person can’t physically get to the opportunity in the first place?
It’s a question that has been on the mind of our CEO, Stuart Manifould, and one that sits at the heart of his latest Substack article: If You Can’t Get There, Is It Really an Opportunity?
“If you can’t get there, is it really an opportunity?” Stuart Manifould, CEO, The Dome
Opportunity only works if young people can access it
For a young person, getting somewhere can be much more complicated than simply looking at a map and working out the distance.
It might mean relying on a bus that doesn’t run at the right time. Walking a significant distance to reach a stop. Finding a way home after an evening session. Or asking a parent or carer for a lift when they may already be juggling work, childcare and other commitments. And sometimes, the cost of getting there is simply too much.
None of these barriers are about motivation or ambition. A young person can be excited about an opportunity and still be unable to take it up. That matters because we can invest in brilliant buildings, programmes, activities and youth workers, but if young people can’t reach them, those opportunities aren’t truly accessible.
A very real issue for Crewe
This isn’t an abstract issue for young people in Crewe. More than a third of the town’s central urban wards have no access to a car. For young people who don’t have access to private transport, a journey that looks straightforward can involve multiple decisions and potential barriers before they even arrive.
For The Dome, this is particularly important as we prepare to open our doors. We want The Dome to be a place where young people from across Crewe can discover what they’re capable of. But creating that opportunity means thinking beyond what happens inside the building.
Access is part of opportunity.
That means asking difficult questions about how young people travel, when public transport is available, what journeys feel safe and manageable, and what happens when the transport network simply doesn’t work for the opportunity being offered.
Turning the conversation into action
Raising the issue is only the starting point. We’re already having conversations with Dan Price (Police Crime Commissioner) and Laura Crane (Cheshire East Council’s Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services (Statutory Lead), to explore what we might be able to achieve together and where there could be opportunities to collaborate. We don’t have all the answers, but we believe the best way to tackle challenges like this is by bringing people together, sharing what we know and looking at what we can achieve collectively.
For The Dome, that means continuing to look beyond the walls of the building and asking what we can do to make sure the opportunities we’re creating are genuinely accessible to the young people who need them.
Starting a bigger conversation
Stuart’s latest article explores why transport needs to be part of the conversation when we talk about youth opportunity, social mobility and creating places where young people can thrive. It’s a conversation that goes well beyond The Dome and one where we want to play an active role. Because if we genuinely want to remove barriers for young people, we need to look at the whole journey, not just the destination.
As Stuart puts it, opportunity isn’t just about what’s on offer. It’s about whether someone can reach it.
Read Stuart’s full article on Substack: If you can’t get there, is it really an opportunity?
Author: Stuart Manifould
And if you’re interested in the future of youth opportunity in Crewe, follow The Dome as we get ready to open our doors in November 2026.