Fountain project rewarded

Now in their fifth year, the awards pay tribute to the commitment, success, dedication and energies of our young people and those who work with them.

Receiving runner-up in the Intergenerational Award was the Cathedral Youth Club and the Long Tower Youth Club for their joint project "Past the Jail and Down behind the Fountain."

The project was a cross-community scheme with participants both young and old from both sides of the community.

It involved the compilation of a high quality book with information on games and pastimes played in the city in the past.

Closely involved with the project was Fountain youth leader Graham Warke who received runner-up in the Outstanding Achievement category.

Graham has been involved in youth work in the Fountain estate in Londonderry over the past six years.

Trouble can often flare up on the interface in the evenings and weekends when Graham can be found on the interface persuading the young people to return to their own area.

He also organises projects for all ages within the youth club and is highly respected within the community.

Michael Beeton of Pennyburn Youth Club has been involved in teaching young people the guitar and has completed a bronze, silver and gold XL award. He is also a representative on the local youth council. He received a youth volunteer award at the ceremony.

The North-West Youth Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Londonderry, Strabane and Omagh - a peer-led project to develop trust and tolerance among young people - received a Peace-Building Award.

The Limavady Youth Office - "High Sur" - project involving seven young people who trained as peer educators and delivered training to 40 young people from Limavady and Rural Foyle through a number of workshops won the Promoting Health Award.

And the St Mary's Princes Trust XL Project - a programme runs after school and attended by 17 pupils - was runner-up in a Schools Led project.

Awards' Organiser Karen Witherspoon, from the Youth Council for Northern Ireland, said: "Every year we have more and more people and groups becoming involved in the Awards and we welcome this opportunity to honour their dedicated work in this sector. Year-on-year the judges' decisions become even more difficult as everyone involved contributes so much to their local communities.

"This year we were particularly impressed with the maturity of the youth projects and the camaraderie members shared with one another, making everyone involved feel part of something special.

"This ceremony was also an opportunity to celebrate the dedication of the extensive network of around 20,000 adult volunteers and youth workers who devote their time to helping to run these projects which have great benefits for young people in Northern Ireland.

"We are delighted that it appears that more young people are becoming actively involved in their communities. Research has consistently shown that involvement in youth work has a positive impact on the social and personal development of young people and is very important in helping them realise their full potential.

"We hope that these Awards inspire other groups to create a project to develop their skills and benefit the community at large!"

Sponsored by the Department of Education and the Youth Council for Northern Ireland, the awards were open to both individuals and groups in the nine categories of Volunteering (Adult and Young), Peace Building, Innovation, International work, Inclusion, Health Promotion work, Outstanding achievement, Intergenerational achievement as well as, for the first time, Projects that were School-led.