This article is from page 30 of the 2008-05-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
THE Killaloe/Ballina Youth Initia- tive has been shortlisted as one of the local deserving children’s projects in contention for a €10,000 award from AIB Killaloe through the Better Ire- land Programme.
The branch will award €10,000 to the local project that tops the poll in a public text vote over a four-week period from May 6 to June 6.
The local community can text Kil- laloe B to 53099 to vote for the youth rea colt Op
The award is part of AIB’s pro- gramme which supports children with disabilities and also children affected by drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness or a lack of access to mainstream education due to pov- uae
Set up in 2004, the initiative caters
for youngsters aged 13 to 16 years.
“The aim of this group is to devel- op the capacity and skills of young people, using a using a developmen- tal, interactive and person centred approach that will help them to take control of their own lives,” said youth worker Tracey Doyle.
Not ones to wait for things to come to them, group members have taken part in a joint fund-raising effort with a youth group from Scariff where they pushed a purpose-built bed in the rain from Scariff to Killaloe to provide some funds to help to pay for travel costs to events.
They attended Youth in Action in Croke Park and opened the day by giving a hand drumming perform- ~N Neen
There are some budding dj’s, in their number who took part in a dj- ing workshop in the Belltable Arts
Centre.
Other members recently competed in the county games final, took part in the under 15’s quiz and the un- der 18’s draughts competitions. The competitor in the draughts competi- tion was successful in going forward to the regional finals.
‘We applied for this funding to cre- ate a chill out area for young people living in the area to provide a space to meet friends, watch tv and dvds, develop better IT skills and avail of non formal development education opportunities, enabling social devel- opment for these young people,” said ibe-leors
She recently carried out research in the area with help from transition year students in St Anne’s Commu- nity College to assess the need and demand for a youth and community centre.
“Comments from young people prove the overwhelming need for a space where youth can meet up and partake in activities in a safe and se- cure environment,’ said Tracey.
“A direct quote from one young person was “There should be a youth centre to keep us off the streets, out of trouble and not be bullied into things we do not want to do”.”
Each text vote costs 60 cent and proceeds generated by the text vot- ing for Killaloe/Ballina Youth Initia- tive will be donated directly to the
group.