TAKING PARTY A IN LOOK THE PARK BACK Youth Information Co-ordinator Gareth Gibson takes a look back at the history of Letterkenny Youth Information Centre.
Letterkenny Youth Information Centre first opened its doors in 1998 as the first public face of Youth Provision in Letterkenny and has gone from strength to strength over the years. Initially the centre was funded from Peace and Reconciliation funds, with partnerships on a cross border basis. This early funding was temporary in nature, and it wasn’t until 2001 that a more sustainable funding source was secured, in the form of the Department of Education, which provided on going funding via the Youth Affairs Section. Now some 10 years on and in the midst of somewhat of a national economic crisis, the Youth Affairs Section is being relocated to the Office of the Minister for Children, a welcomed move with potentially great opportunities, however, long term funding for Youth Information is not guaranteed. Letterkenny Youth Information Centre first opened in early 1998 in premises located at 108 Lower Main Street, in the building occupied by Donegal Youth Service. A few years later in 2001, the opportunity arose to move the service to 17-26 Celtic Apartments on the Pearse Road, a building which we occupied for 5 years. Over the years, with the entire Donegal Youth Service, not just the Youth Information Centre growing steadily, the need was apparent that another move was a necessity. In 2006, that moved was realised, and we relocated to a purpose built facility at 16 -18 Port Road Letterkenny, in which we still “live” today.
The centre itself caters for young people aged 12 to 25, parents and those who work with young people, for example teachers and youth workers. The Centre operates under the National Youth Information guidelines and offers a unique approach to youth information in that the information team strive to animate the information through a rich and varied outreach programme, courses and innovative projects. The centre always offered a drop in service, but with the move to the new premises in 2006, the opportunity arose to operate a state of the art drop in facility in partnership with the LOFT LK. In the 10 years that the centre has been in operation statistics have been maintained, which record that the centre has dealt with over 56,000 queries from over 40,000 clients and when special services and other centre users are included the centre can boast a footfall in excess of 165,590 young people. Also in this period there has been 10 staff who have spent various periods working in the Centre: Lorraine Thompson; Yvonne Grieve; Noreen McCusker; Sinead Barron; Patsy Callaghan; Charlene Logue; Gareth Gibson; Fiona Boyle; Frankie McGreevy; Martin Keeney. 5 of these staff continue to work for Donegal Youth service. The key to the success of Letterkenny Youth Information Centre has been the dedication of staff and management, the constant efforts to improve with innovative methods and by no means least the participation of the young people, without whom the centre would fail to exist.