Carrick-on-Suir Youth & Community Centre's services plan open night for the public

A youth and community centre in the heart of Carrick-on-Suir that helps vulnerable young people and adults to take the right path in life, is hosting an open night on Tuesday, October 18 to showcase to local people the services it provides.

Behind the modest facade of the Carrick-on-Suir Youth & Community Centre on New Street lies a spacious and comfortable home for the EDGE Youth Diversion Project, Suir Valley Community Based Drugs Initiative and Making Connections Education & Employment Support Project.

The community services based in the centre are part of Waterford & South Tipperary Community Youth Services.
The three services continued operating throughout the difficult two years of the Covid-19 pandemic either remotely online or with social distancing restrictions in place in the community centre.

But now that pandemic restrictions are finally behind the country, the community workers that run the EDGE, Suir Valley Community Drugs Initiative and Making Connections have decided to open the centre’s doors on October 18 from 6pm to 8pm to the people of Carrick as a way of promoting their services and introducing themselves to the community. Refreshments will be provided for visitors.

“We are opening our doors to allow the community to come in to meet the staff and to look around the centre, see what is available and the services we provide,” said Amy O’Halloran, youth justice worker with the EDGE Youth Diversion Project.

She said the centre’s services meet a huge variety of needs in the community in an holistic way whether it’s young people who need direction in life, people suffering from substance misuse, members of their families or someone who wants to progress to further education or employment.

“If someone comes to us and we couldn’t meet their needs, we would be able to signpost them to the appropriate service that suits them,” she stressed.

Each of the three services has a dedicated space within the community centre.

EDGE Youth Diversion Project

EDGE Project Youth Justice workers Amy O’Halloran and Nicola Ryan in the project’s meeting room at the community centre 

The EDGE Youth Diversion Project is based in a large room decorated in vibrant splashes of colour on the community centre’s ground floor that includes a kitchenette, a pool table and sitting room area with large television and suite of couches and chairs.

EDGE is an acronym for Engaged, Divert, Guide & Educate, which succinctly describes the project’s goals for the young people who Amy and her fellow youth justice worker Nicola Ryan work with in small groups of six to eight after school and during the school holidays to steer them away from involvement in anti-social behaviour. The community project was established in Carrick-on-Suir in 2007 and is funded by the European Social Fund.

“We work with people aged 12 to 17 to keep them off the streets and urge them to make better choices and support them with any issues they have with their school and family,” explains Amy.

“We would really work to build relationships to support them in any aspects of their life where they need support.”
Nicola said the young people they work with are generally referred to the EDGE Project by their parents, schools and local agencies.

They run education programmes such as alcohol abuse awareness, mental health awareness and sexual health awareness and organise a range of summer activities from sporting pursuits like fishing and swimming to day outings and overnight trips all aimed at filling students time positively during the school holidays.

Fiona Dougliss is the EDGE Youth Diversion Project’s family support worker, who provides support to the parents and other family members of the young person referred to them.

She can work with family members on a one-to-one basis or through group support sessions. Sometimes family members can avail of courses of special interest to them at the centre such as parenting programmes and cookery.

Suir Valley Community Drugs Initiative

Community drug worker Gail Sheridan in the Suir Valley Community Drugs Initiative facility at the community centre

Across the hall is the Suir Valley Community Drugs Initiative, which was founded in 2003. Like the EDGE Project it boasts a kitchenette and a comfortable, informal meeting area for people struggling with addiction problems that the service helps.

Gail Sheridan is the project’s community drug worker since January. She said the Community Drugs Initiative is often the first point of contact for people suffering from an addiction when they go seeking a treatment pathway. She supports them to get into a treatment programme.

“I work one-to-one with people who are struggling with alcohol and substance misuse and work with their families as well,” she explained.

Gail runs a family support group for the family members of those suffering from addiction and is in the process of setting up a Self Management, Addiction, Recovery (SMART) Group that gives people suffering from an addiction the tools and information they need to help them with their recovery.

Gail said the SMART programme is suitable for people with any kind of addictive behaviour, not just a dependency on drugs.

She stresses the SMART support group will be peer led and she will be just its facilitator.

She points out that the Suir Valley Community Drugs Initiative helps people of all ages.

The youngest person she has worked with was 16-years-old but most people that come to the service are over the age of 25 with the majority aged in their 30s. Alcohol, cocaine and cannabis are the main causes of the addictions she deals with in her work.

The project is also a public access point for information on drugs and alcohol misuse and issues surrounding it. Gail provides drugs and alcohol awareness education in schools, sports clubs and other community organisations.

Making Connections Project

Making Connections co-ordinator Karen Scully in the programme’s spacious course room in the community centre

Upstairs in the centre is a state-of-the-art course room with computers lining one wall that is home to the Making Connections Programme, a Local Training Initiative (LTI) funded by Tipperary Education & Training Board and supported by Waterford & South Tipperary Youth Services that provides community based training to Level 3 Major Award.

The Making Connections Programme is primarily based in Clonmel and has been hosting an outreach day at Carrick-on-Suir Community & Youth Centre once a week every Thursday between 9.30am and 5pm for over a decade.

Karen Scully, the programme’s co-ordinator, explained the service provides training in skills to assist people secure employment or progress to further and higher education.

“It’s a stepping stone to mainstream education and into employment,” Karen outlined.

“Our target groups would be anyone over the age of 18 who has become disengaged with mainstream education. They would have issues with substance abuse or are homeless and have associated mental health issues.”

People are usually referred to the programme through the Suir Valley Community Drugs Initiative, mental health services, the Probation Service and substance misuse services. Making Connections also takes self-referrals.

How to contact the services

The EDGE Youth Diversion Project: Amy O’Halloran at (086) 858 9873, Nicola Ryan at (086) 7703302, Family support worker Fiona Dougliss (086) 7911 493 and The EDGE YDP Facebook page.

Suir Valley Community Drugs Initiative: Gail Sheridan: (051) 645775 or (087) 9827 669 and the Suir Valley CBDI Facebook page and Instagram account.

Making Connections: Karen Scully: (086) 7911 493. You can also log onto the Making Connections South Tipperary Facebook page.

Information is also available on the Waterford & South Tipperary Youth Services website: www.wstcys.ie