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New space for Kinvara youths

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Young people in South Galway and North Clare are set to have a new social outlet shortly, as it was announced this week that the old courthouse in Kinvara is to become home to the Kinvara Youth Project.

“The project is a youth-led voluntary group established to provide a safe alcohol-free space where young people can meet and enjoy each other’s company. They can simply hang out with their friends or participate in educational, artistic and recreational programmes,” said Jane Joyce, spokesperson for the project.
A group of teenagers, parents and community members first met towards the end of 2008. The Kinvara Youth Project (KYP) evolved as a response to a desire expressed by Kinvara’s teenagers, regarding the provision of a location where they could meet and socialise safely.
“In the absence of a dedicated teenage space, they felt isolated within the community and seemed to lack a true sense of inclusion and the means to contribute to each other and the greater community. For this reason, the Kinvara Youth Project was developed to provide them with a secure space where they can enjoy safe socialising, have fun while developing healthy relationships and have a positive space to explore the issues adolescence raises for them,” Jane continued.
The project will be open to all young people from the Kinvara area between the ages of 15 and 19 years. The project will be run on a voluntary basis, with team leaders and a pool of adult volunteers supervising each session.
“The initiative includes a diverse range of people, the youth, community partners and adult supporters, who care about the opinions, ideas and experience of the youth who live, work and are educated in the Kinvara area,” Jane explained.
Under the umbrella of the Kinvara Community Council, the group’s focus is on creating a vibrant, welcoming space and a secure haven for the young people.
“As relaxed leisure typically associated with socialising, watching television and so on is so important to teens, the group aim to provide the right balance between unstructured hanging out space and structured activities. They hope to address issues that are often taboo subjects among this peer group. The most important thing about a youth space is that it is set up by young people for young people with adult support. Young people are involved from the very start in the planning, researching, decision-making, fundraising and running of the youth space,” she outlined.
The Kinvara Courthouse was chosen as the venue for the project because it was recently vacated by the community playschool and is in the village centre, close to shops and amenities.
“It is physically and metaphorically at the heart of the village, which is where our young people, who are the future of the village, should be. Having been of much benefit to the same youths in their infancy, it would seem very apt that the courthouse should continue to be available to serve their needs now. They are at home within its walls,” Jane said.
The courthouse was made available to the group by Fr Larkin and the Diocesan Committee and, according to Jane, it is more than just a location.
“Having successfully secured the Kinvara Courthouse as a venue, the group are in the process of creating a space that teenagers can identify with; bestowing a sense of belonging and emotional and physical security. This space, however, is more than a physical setting; it is a community-based support system centred on empowering youth and enriching the entire community,” she stated.
The Kinvara Youth Project has been shortlisted by the Better Ireland Programme and those involved locally are urging people countywide to vote for the project.
There will be an open evening on March 7 at the courthouse, at 6pm.
“Everyone is invited to come along, meet the project team and see what Kinvara’s Youth Space is all about,” Jane concluded.

 

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