Welcome to The Hut at Fountain Street

IT’S exciting times for local children in the Fountain Street area of Strabane, following the recent opening of a new youth hub called, The Hut.

Based at the community centre, the newly refurbished space offers a range of  amenities and programmes  for young people of all ages.

And, with some 20 kids already availing of the services and to boot, having lots of fun in the process, leaders are appealing for more to get involved.

Mary Deery, centre manager at Fountain Street Community Development Association explained how the new facility came to be established.

“This space had been used for storage for a number of years,” she said.

“We  got it  cleared out and it turns out that it was the missing link, in terms of programmes. We had everything else here except a youth project.

>body2text<“We got a grant from the Big Lottery last year and when Covid hit, I was able to apply for an uplift. I approached them as said, what if we could transform this unit into a hub for the youth.

“The Lottery agreed. We got £26,000.”

With a seating area, computers, a games machine and a new kitchen and bathroom, The Hut is now seen as an important part of the overall remit at Fountain Street.

Mary continued, “Everything in here is new and purpose built. We have the pitch outside, the sports hall and the computer suite but this is our young people’s very own space. It was finished about three weeks ago.”

Education Authority area youth worker, Joe McColgan explained that whilst he works with groups of young people across the town he will now be  based at Fountain Street.

“We also have a drop-in service and there will be programmes with the schools –  a six-week programme with the year eights,” Joe remarked.

“We’ve also started doing a street-based youth work service as well. “Every Friday night a team of us will be out on the street engaging with young people, chatting to them and trying to get them involved in the programmes and instead of hanging out in the cold, they can come in here.”

As well as Joe, who works with older children, Andrew Pollock is employed to work with younger kids, with a programme geared around recovery from the trauma of Covid.

Joe continued, “We have different programmes, like work skills and things like that and we can also get them involved in community initiatives like healthy eating, in partnership with the Strabane Health Improvement Project.

“These are life skills that you’re not getting in a school setting. And it’s about things that they want to do as well, helping them to develop skills that they are interested in. It’ll be youth led. Should it be that they want to come in here and watch a film, that’s what it’ll be.

“But the kids that have come in so far have really enjoyed themselves, they said it’s class”, he added.

      •   If you would like your child to get involved and avail of the great new facility at Fountain Street, contact Joe through the group’s Facebook page or call 07436235183.