So all the “HO HO HO” has ended and we are already into the 2nd month of the new year, firstly all the youth work team would like to thank all our members, there parents and guardians and the community as a whole for all the support over the last 7 years, and we look forward to continuing to provide a top quality youth service in the future.
2013 was a mixed year, full of fun, joy and sometimes sadness, while we sympathise with anybody who has lost loved ones recently, we would like to say a special mention to two ladies who where great supporters of Fountain Resource Group and Fountain Youth Project. Ms Marion Mulligan (RIP) and Ms Becky Mullins (RIP), both these ladies are past Board members of our Board of Management who gave their time willingly to do sterling work on behalf of the community, they have played a huge part in leaving a legacy for the community now and in the future.
Well what can we say about the last year here in the Fountain Youth Project other than it was busy busy busy … but great fun and very rewarding .. we done loads of residential trips to places like the Cavan Centre and Hidden Valley camping and caravan park, where around 80 young people enjoyed activities like canoeing, hill walking and high rope adventures. These two places are always firm favourites with our members, so much so we have had young people turn down West Life concerts and holidays to Spain. That tells you how high the young people rank these trips. We have reached another mile stone here in Fountain last year, we took part in our first overseas residential programme, this seen a group of local teenagers head of to just outside Milan in Italy to take part in a nine day youth exchange with groups from Italy, Poland, Spain and Lithuania. This trip was a huge success and the youth work team and there management team are very keen to build on the success of this in the coming years,
There was far too much that we have done last year to mention everything, but the old favourites will be making a return this year, like pier jumping and speed boating with Sharon and Garreth the sports development officers from DCC, without whom most of our summer activities would not be possible. We can’t thank these two enough for what they do for us, also returning will be our summer programme where we will do our trips to Bray Head, Funtasia, the National Aquatic Centre, to name but a few. We also hope to continue and grow our film making groups, in 2013 we were lucky to secure funding from the LUAS (CONNECT) to buy our own camera equipment and we will be making this a big feature in our future programmes.
We started some new activities this year, most recently Boxercise, this is going very well and we are half way through our first group. We intend to open this up to more young people as we go along, and its hoped during the summer to hold a boxing exhibition on the local soccer pitch with our young people taking on others from projects around the city. We are constantly trying to provide new activities for the young people and welcome any suggestions that you might have.
We would like to finish by welcoming the latest members of the Youth Work Team, nearing the end of last year we were joined by some new staff members, John Shaw, followed by Gemma O’Reilly. And then just before Christmas we had Michael Kelly come on Board, each of these will add to our strengths and help us deliver the service worthy of the community, so if you see them around make them feel welcome, walk up and say hello.
So from Paul, Nicola, Steven, John, Gemma and Michael it’s a belated Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all in 2014.
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