New Lodge Youth Centre
2018 has brought a new beginning at the New Lodge Youth Centre with new Senior Youth Worker Paul Dynes beginning post on the 8th of January. Paul comes with a wealth of experience kicking off as a Youth Support Worker at Clonard Youth Centre before taking up a post at the Hammer Youth Centre, where he has spent four and a half very successful years. Paul has a strong youth work ethos and clear vision through which he hopes to implement solid youth work structures and in turn provide innovative opportunities for young people. “There is so much potential here at the youth centre, we have a highly motivated staff/volunteer team, most of whom are local people, who show a great willingness to make a difference in the lives of young people. We also have five new staff members coming on board all with a wide variety of skills which will only add to what may be achieved.”
This month alone has seen record numbers of young people engage with the Youth Centre. This is a positive step in the right direction. We also have some new exciting programmes and partnerships flourishing. At present the centre is operating 7 nights a week with our new Saturday night detached team hitting the streets 3 weeks ago. We also have a wide range of informal education programmes running from our ‘New Look, New Lodge’ Social Action Project to our international programmes such as NLYC Romania and NLYC Africa.
We encourage all local young people aged between 5 and 24 to come along and speak to staff at the centre and see what activities there are for them to get involved in.