Ritchie announces funding boost for Dungannon Youth Centre

Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie MLA, today announced a funding boost of over £10,000 for Dungannon Youth and Resource Centre.

The funding will be used to help support young people throughout the local area by providing activities and courses to help them prepare for adulthood. This will include an Independent Living Course, which will be arranged to help young people manage their finances and home, shop effectively and cook successfully.

It will also provide a fully equipped music room, and the youth centre will organise and facilitate a music programme.

Furthermore, the local migrant community will receive benefits from the funding. A webcam will be set up in the youth centre that will allow them to keep in touch with their families at home.

Margaret Ritchie said: “This project will provide real and significant benefits to people in the Dungannon Neighbourhood Renewal Area.”

“The Neighbourhood Renewal process aims to involve everyone in the area. Too frequently young people and others can be left out of the process or may have little interest in becoming involved. Work of this nature helps to stabilise communities.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy ‘People and Place’ was published in June 2003 to close the gap between the quality of life for people in the most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of society. The Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy has four interlinking strategic objectives:
   · community renewal – to develop confident communities that are able and committed to improving the quality of life in their areas.
   · economic renewal – to develop economic activity in the most deprived neighbourhoods and connect them to the wider urban economy.
   · social renewal – to improve social conditions for the people who live in the most deprived neighbourhoods through better co-ordinated public services and the creation of safer environments.
   · physical renewal – to help create attractive, safe and sustainable environments in the most deprived neighbourhoods.
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