CUMANN ÓIGE CHLUANAÍ ABOUT THE CLUB

Cumann Óige Chluanaí is held every week at Holy Trinity Youth Club for 7-11 year olds. Approx 45-50 young people attend each week.

All the equipment used during the cumann, for example art supplies and sports equipment, has been purchased by Glór na Móna specifically for this project.

HISTORY

Under the banner of Cumann Óige Uachtar Chluanaí, a weekly youth club ran in the area for four years relying solely on the goodwill of community volunteers. Local people sacrificed their time to run the club and many community groups donated their facilities free of charge.

In order to create a more stable future for the Cumann, Glór na Móna revamped their youth services in Autumn 2009 after a series of committee meetings and meetings with the Belfast Education and Library Board.

The much needed Irish language youth facility came back with a name change to ‘Cumann Óige Chluanaí’ and with the backing of the BELB.

The Cumann Óige was now registered with the BELB and received an award of £5,000. This was obtained through a funding initiative provided by the Minister for Education to assist in the development of youth work through the medium of Irish.

FUNDING

The funding was made available in November 2009 and was to cover the period until the end of March 2010. Funding of £5,000 was also received for the period October 2010 until March 2011.

Following discussions with Trevor Murphy, Assistant Senior Education Officer (acting) and West Belfast Youth Officer Steve Carr, it was agreed that Glór na Móna would spend the money as follows:

Part-time Youth Hours £2,500: Secured 12 paid part-time hours per week to cater for two employees for a period of 23 weeks

£2,500 Programme costs: Used for youth work curriculum activities and related programmes.

Through this funding made available by the BELB, Cumann Óige Chluanaí have been able to develop the youth club and provide a much more comprehensive and enjoyable youth service to Irish Medium children.

The financial support provided by the BELB greatly enhanced the young people’s opportunities for:

• Personal development, education, training, engagement with others

• Engagement within communities and engagement with cross communities

• Promoting community relations & good relations

• Promoting Citizenship

• Promoting Leadership

• Promotion of networking, good practice and awareness

• Value for money

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

Glór na Móna are currently developing a programme of future events for Cumann Óige Chluanaí encorporating the requests of the youth club members.

More details will be made available on this website in the very near future.

To assist the Glór na Móna committee with this work a group of five young people, between the ages of 16-19, have been helping with the process. These same young people are currently doing their OCN level 1 in youth work as facilitated by BELB funding and are on Glór na Móna’s Belfast Youth Irish Medium sub-committee.