New Youth Club opens after huge interest from teenagers
Ruby, Leah, Sienna and Tracy in Newcastle Youth Club

New Youth Club opens after huge interest from teenagers

NEWCASTLE Youth Club officially opened in Newcastle Village Hall on Thursday, March 3, and has been met with “huge interest” from children and teenagers in the area.

The youth club, which has been in the works for many years, opened last Thursday to 160 children and teenagers aged 10-14 already signed up. The club will be running four different groups across Thursday and Friday evenings and is run by volunteers from the local area.

“We initially had a taster evening back in February to see how many kids would be interested in going and in the end over 200 kids applied to attend – there is a huge need for it here in Newcastle,” said one of the youth club’s volunteers, Sarah Coventry.

Speaking about what activities will be taking place in the club, Sarah said that they will be looking for the kids to come up with ideas about what they would like to do.

“Foróige’s ethos is that they let the young people run the group, so we will just facilitate it,” she explained. “They will come up with the ideas of how each night will be run.

“For the first two nights we had snooker tables, foosball, ping-pong tables and all sorts of different things to see what they would like to do, but our goal is that we hope to go out and do trips and community activities like Tidy Towns.

Gerard, Ciara, Declan, Tracy and Siobhán

“The kids will be involved with the community and have a positive contribution on the community.”

The youth club is the first one in the area in over twenty years, and many of those who attended back twenty years ago are now parents and are volunteering at the club. The club is responding to the needs of the young people and the growing population in the area in recent years.

“There is a lot of sports groups in the area, but for the kids who maybe aren’t involved in sports, there was not a whole lot to do, so this is something extra special for them to meet other kids and do things that aren’t sport related,” said Sarah.

“A huge amount of work has gone into getting it set up and it has been parents in the local area coming together wanting to do something positive. There was a really great reception the first two nights, so hopefully that momentum will keep going.”

The Newcastle Youth Club are looking for anyone who would like to volunteer to get in touch through their website Newcastle Youth Club.

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