Issue 3: Apr - Jun 2008

Welcome to the latest Edition of ECHO, a Youth Information Centre newsletter for the young people of Letterkenny. This quarter we look at all that has been happening in the Youth Information Centre and Loft LK over the last 3 months.

We hear all about Boy Number Seven’s victory in the national final of Seven Steps Up and look at what is coming up in the Youth Information Centre and Loft LK over the summer.Enjoy!Martin KeeneyYouth Information Officer

Speak Up What’s Coming Up?News Caught on Camera FYI – Seven Steps Up

Letterkenny Youth Information Centre Newsletter

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FRIDAY NIGHT PROJECT HAILED A SUCCESS The Family Action Letterkenny Friday Night Project has been hailed a success by young people and leaders involved. All the groups involved are currently looking at ways of extending the project, which saw young people from a range of different projects from the town, take part in a range of sports at the Aura Leisure Centre on a Friday night from 9.30pm to midnight.

PARTY IN THE PARK 08 SET TO GET UNDERWAYLetterkenny Youth Information Centre will soon be getting plans underway for Party in the Park 08. This will be the 4th year the centre has been involved in the running of the event, which is a partnership project with the Regional Cultural Centre and Donegal Youth Council. If you would like to be involved in the organising committee talk to Frankie McGreevy at the Youth Information Centre.

CHRISTOPHER HIGHLIGHTS LACK OF ACCESSIn what has been an innovative project for the Youth Information Centre Christopher McBrearty, who is a resident at Cheshire apartments in the town, has been using digital storytelling as a way of highlighting the lack of wheelchair access across a number of Letterkenny businesses. The digital stories, which have been completed by the Gateway to Opportunity group, will be launched at the end of May.

MEDIA GROUP TO LAUNCH ROCKUMENTARYA new Rockumentary based upon the recent Seven Steps Up project completed by the Letterkenny Youth Media Group will soon be launched in the centre. It features the lead up to the regional heats in the Regional Cultural Centre and performances from Boy Number 7, Tricky Corners and the legend that has become JDG.

TO CONTACT THE ECHO NEWS TEAM TEXT 086-3499998

YIC & LOFT NEWS

Christopher McBrearty

DONEGAL GROUP CLAIM SEVEN STEPS UP WINDonegal band Boy Number 7 and a host of other Donegal bands are currently celebrating victory in the Seven Steps Up Music Initiative, which saw Boy Number Seven beat off competition from all over the country at the National Final in the Sugar Club on March 8th. See Page 5 for more details of the competition and Page 3 to see a host of pics from the project.

Honey I Shrunk the Media Group

CAUGHT ON CAMERA

Top Left: Demo Deadline Day - Top Middle: Resistance perform at Regional Cultural Centre - Top Right: Busking to raise money for tripBottom Left: Boy Number 7 receive National Award - Bottom Middle: Jackie Hayden (Hotpress) - Bottom Right: Sarah Walsh in Ashtown studio

Top Left: Keeping fit in the Loft - Top Middle: ASPIRE programme in Aura Leisure Centre - Top Right: Loft Search & Rescue Day in Derry Bottom Left: Stretch Jamie Stretch - Bottom Middle: Loft pool competition winners Lorcan, Brandon & Robert - Bottom Right: Fun Day Out

We take a look at all that has been happening in the Youth Information Centre and Loft LK from January to March, but first off we take a look at some of the stages of the Seven Steps Up Project.

This section offers you the chance to hear from Youth Information Staff on what is coming up over the coming months!

THINGS TO DO IN LETTERKENNY THIS SUMMERYOUTH INFORMATION CENTRE

The Letterkenny Youth Information Centre will be running a drop-in service from 1-6pm from June through to the end of August. As part of the summer programme this year there will be a film-making project, as well as the Party in the Park. If you want cheap internet access, a game of pool or just somewhere to hang out with your friends come along and join the fun! We are located at 16-18 Port Road, across from the old cinema. Talk to a member of staff now to find out more.

WORKSHOPS IN AN GRIANAN THEATRE

There is a Performing Arts Summer School at An Grianan Theatre from Monday 21st July- Sat 26th July. It is suitable for young people aged 8-20, but there is a cost of €100 per person. There are also a Choral Academy with Jim Maley for young singers in the 10-18 age group from Monday 28th July until Saturday 2nd August, also at a cost of €100 per young person.

LOFT LK SUMMER PROGRAMME

As well as providing a late evening drop-in on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and Saturday afternoons the Loft LK also run an extensive 8-week summer programme, which will see a mix of indoor and outdoor activities. If you would like to get involved talk to a member of staff in the Loft now or call them at 074-9188271.

COMMUNITY CENTRE SUMMER CAMPS

The Letterkenny Community Centre has run summer camps for over 15 years, and this year is no different. They offer activities for children of all ages, abilities and interests and pride themselves on providing children with a fun and educational experience. Each Camp is geared towards a specific age range, allowing activities and entertainment to be offered at the level that best suits each child.

REGIONAL CULTURAL CENTRE

The Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny is an amazing new arts centre (located behind An Grianán Theatre). Throughout the summer of 2008 they will be running a series of workshops in art, digital media and more, exhibitions, music gigs and films. If you are interested in finding out more then contact Sally Murphy, Education and Outreach Manager. Tel: 91 29186 / Email sally.murphy@donegalcoco.ie

LAIKA & TIME CIRCUS PRESENTS SENSAZIONE

A central event of the Earagail Arts festival, Sensazione is a human powered funfair that runs off your energy, a high octane carnival, a cross between a night at the circus and the thrill of the funfair, an interactive fairground for everybody aged 12 years and up.

Once through the gateway the audience are transported to a world of fairground folk with fantastic tales and extraordinary requests devised and improvised by the internationally renowned Laika performers.

The audience are free to roam the fairground following the performers from location to location and enjoying the array of custom fairground rides all made from recycled materials by the ingenious Time Machine makers. In the true spirit of the new age of renewable power all the energy to operate the rides comes form the patrons of the funfair, even the lights.

SHOWTIMESThursday 17th July 6.30pm 7.45pm 9pm Friday 18th July 6.30pm 7.45pm 9pm Saturday 19th July 12.30pm 3pm 5pm Sunday 20th July 12.30pm 3pm 5pm Letterkenny, Town Park €15 / 10 (Family Ticket €40, 2 adults/2 children)

LETTERKENNY YOUTH INFORMATION CENTRE - NEW TEXT SERVICE TEXT YOUR QUERY TO

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Gareth Frankie Marty Emma

D O N E G A L VICTORIOUS IN SEVEN STEPS UP FINALThe Seven Steps Up project has proved a huge success, with Boy Number 7 claiming victory in the National final.

The beauty of the whole project has been that the band were able to receive a lot of

help and support along the way from fellow Donegal bands, as well as the L e t t e r k e n n y Youth Media group from the Youth I n f o r m a t i o n Centre and Loft LK.

Seven other local acts, including local songwriters Paul Mooney, Brendan McGlynn, as well as Donegal

bands Crimson Reign, JDG, Tricky Corners and Resistance, are all part of a group, which travelled to Ashtown studios in Dublin recently to record a compilation album, which will be released both locally and further afield this summer.

Boy Number 7 consists of Marty Gilroy, Sarah Walsh (violin) and Aidan Earley (bass), with Richard Durning from Castlefinn on drums.

The project, which is a Youth Work Ireland Initiative, has been co-ordinated on a local basis by the Letterkenny Youth Information Centre, Loft LK and the Regional Cultural Centre.

Keep an eye in record shops shortly for the Seven Steps Up Donegal album!

FYI - SEVEN STEPS

Recording at Ashtown Recording Studios National Final at the Sugar Club

MC John Ruddy at the Regional Cultural Centre

Boy Number 7 fans enjoy their performance at Sugar Club

SPEAK UP!

IS LETTERKENNY YOUTH FRIENDLY? With the recent Donegal Youth Council AGENDA DAY taking place in the Ramada Encore hotel we asked young people of the Loft and YIC whether Letterkenny really is youth friendly and what changes they felt needed to happen to make Letterkenny more youth friendly.

Sinead Brennan - 17“I think that Letterkenny is not a youth friendly town! Far from it! Yes, we all know about sport facilities and youth clubs but what about the teens that aren’t interested in sports or being in a club?! Of course we have a great youth café and information centre but only 70 of Letterkenny’s thousands of young people can fit in the premises. Also businesses need to accept that young people are customers too and stop seeing them as loiterers and mischief-makers. We need to remove the stigma and bias around young people!”

Dean Curran - 18“I don’t think Letterkenny is a youth friendly town. Other than the LOFT there are very few entertain-ing places for teens to go. We get moved along anywhere we go. Shops benefit from our vagabond days spent wandering but don’t want us anywhere nearby thanks to the mosquito.”

Jennifer Montgomery - 17“Well, I think that there’s definitely more work that needs to be done but Letterkenny isn’t the worst town for young people. There’s the cinema, a brand new leisure centre and of course the LOFT. Natu-rally you sometimes have to make your own fun because it’s very easy to sit back and say there’s nothing to do. I think more youth friendly places could be made available as not everybody knows about the LOFT or it just isn’t their kind of place. If more student rates were made available in the shops around the town it would be greatly appreciated too.”

Deirdre Gallagher - 16“Letterkenny isn’t very youth friendly. There are facilities for youths but the youths aren’t properly informed about them. And the main facilities are under funded. The best places to go in Letterkenny are the LOFT and the cinema but you can only go to them at certain times so when they can’t go there they have nowhere to go. Also, teenagers get kicked out of shopping centres for doing nothing. It isn’t fair.”

Sean Ferry - 17“I don’t think Letterkenny is youth friendly because we only have one youth centre in the town and it can’t really cater for all young people in the town, and apart from that we don’t really have anywhere we can go to hang out, but we do have a cinema and youth centre.”

Shauna Rafferty and Rachel Murphy - 15“We think that Letterkenny is a relatively youth friendly town. There are lots of facilities for us, e.g. Arena 7, the new leisure centre, the cinema, the park and of course, the LOFT! The majority of the general public though are slightly prejudiced against us adolescents, which is unfortunately because of the minority of teens who behave in an anti-social matter. The older generation may be intimidated by a group of teens gathered outside a shop, which is probably the reason for the mosquito. In saying this, a lot of shop owners, taxi drivers, etc are very friendly towards us and understand that most of us aren’t as intimidating as we may seem.”

WHATS THE CRACK WITH YIC YAC?YIC YAC member Dapo Egberongbe tells us what the Youth Information Centre Youth Advisory Committee have been up to.The youth advisory group is ever so busy with more madness expected in the coming summer months, with planning for Party in the Park already underway.

Emer and Jen also recently completed a presentation on the mosquito alarm at the Donegal Youth Council Agenda Day, which looked at youth issues in Letterkenny.

We also recently tackled issues surrounding the use of the TV/music equipment in the centre. We felt that to ensure no particular group of young people feels alienated, the idea of having only a radio station on between 4pm and 6pm would be introduced. The softer music on radio actually fosters a calmer atmosphere in the centre also.

The YICYAC is looking for fresh faces to keep discussions and decisions made in the group unbiased and fair. If interested, please talk to Frankie in the YIC.

MEET THE NEW YOUTH WORKER

We caught up with new Loft youth worker, Jane McLean, to find out how she is enjoying life in Loft LK.

Tell me about yourself? I began working as a Youth worker in The Loft in March. I am from Letterkenny. I studied Social Studies and Psychology at College in Derry. I spent last year working and travelling in Australia.

Have you any other interests/hobbies? I like travelling and going out with my friends.

Why did you want to come work in the Loft? This year I did voluntary work in a Garda Youth Project in Donegal which I am still involved with. I enjoyed working with young people so I applied for the position of Youth Worker in The Loft when it became available.

What are your first impressions? The staff are very friendly and helpful. The young people are good craic and it is a great location!

STAFF PROFILE Each edition of ECHO offers you an opportunity to get to know the staff and volunteers a bit better. This time around it’s the turn of John Muldowney, who is a Project Worker with Loft LK.

Tell me about yourself: I worked as a carpenter for 20 years before being made redundant and so I took this as reason enough to go back to school to get edumacated! I studied IT and Computer Programming at LYIT for 5 years, graduating in June 2007. I know what you’re thinking..IT/Youth work? So here goes…while I was at the Electric Picnic in 2005 I met Deborah McMullin who had just been recruited by

the LOFT as a youth worker, and later on that year she was recruiting volunteers at LYIT for LOFT LK. So I signed up and have been here since!

What does your job entail? On a day to day basis we organise activities and groups for the young people that attend the project, as well as events such as band nights, DJ groups and other drop-in activities. And loads of paperwork and really important meetings.

Why did you want to come work in the Loft? I really enjoyed volunteering here (a blessed relief from all the IT stuff!) and was delighted when I was given the job.

What is your favourite thing about your job? Having the craic with the young people here, having wonderfully abstract conversations. Being involved in the band nights and hearing the bands improve night after night. Being paid to do what I love doing. And the legend that is David Toye!

Anything you don’t like? Loads of paperwork and really important meetings!

YIC YAC & STAFF PROFILE

BRAZILIAN EXCHANGE

Later this year the Donegal Youth Service will be sending a team of young people to Brazil to participate in a project called “A Different Triangle.”

The 2 week project will see young people from all over Europe meet up with young people from Africa, South America and the West Indies, to share knowledge and experiences and set up further international exchange opportunities.

The project will be open to young people in the 18-25 age group in the county and if you are interested you can contact the Letterkenny Youth information Centre on 0749129640 or text us on 086-3499998

BAND NIGHTS AT THE LOFT Are you in a band? If you would like to take part in any upcoming gigs talk to John Muldowney now in the Loft LK for more details. Email john.muldowney@foroige.ie or phone 074-9188271. Better still just come along into the centre and talk to him.

VOLUNTEERS WANTED We are always welcome to have new volunteers come along and get involved at the Youth Informatioon Centre or Loft LK. If interested talk to Marty in the YIC or Orla in the Loft. See below for contact details.

SUMMER PROGRAMMEThe Letterkenny Youth Information Centre and Loft LK will soon be putting together summer programmes. If you have an idea for an event or activity you would like to see happening then talk to a member of staff now.

WORK IN EUROPE FOR SUMMER Fancy working in Europe for the summer? The Letterkenny Youth Information Centre is a contact agent for Eurodesk, meaning we can help you gain information on working or travel abroad through our range of contacts on a European wide basis. Talk to us in the centre to find out more.

VTOS & BTEI NOW ENROLLING

The Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme and The Back to Education Initiative are currently enrolling for September 2008.

The Back to Education Initiative (BTEI) provides part-time Further Education programmes for young people and adults. The aim is to give people an opportunity to combine a return to learning with family, work and other responsibilities.

Meanwhile The Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) is a second chance education and training programme, which provides courses of up to two years duration for those who are unemployed.

If you wish to apply or require any further information on what courses are on offer you can contact Aine McLaughlin in the Letterkenny Adult Education & Training Centre at 074-9161581 or call in to Letterkenny Youth Information Centre at 16-18 Port Road for more info.

ABOUT THE LOFT LKThe Loft LK is a Youth Project and Adolescent Health Advice Café managed in partnership between the Donegal Youth Service with funding being provided by the Health Service Executive.

NOW ENROLLING!

Youth Health - Art - Drama - Media Skills - Personal Development - Peer Leadership - Peer Education - Young Women’s group - Much more....

Call in and see how you can get involved. Loft LK Youth Project & Health Café16-18 Port Road, Letterkenny, Co DonegalPhone 07491-88271 or email lkyouthcafe@yahoo.ie

ABOUT THE LETTERKENNY YOUTH INFORMATION CENTREThe Youth Information Centre is a well established resource for the local community providing Young people and those who work with them a one stop shop for information and training opportunities in the following areas:

Job and Housing Lists - Law and Justice - CV Preparation - Travel opportunities - College applications - Student Travel card service - Practice for Driver Theory Test - Leadership training - Media skills training - Drop in service

Letterkenny Youth Information Centre, 16-18 Port Road, Letterkenny, Co. DonegalTel 0749129640 or email yicletterkenny@eircom.net