Young people in Portadown are coming together to break down barriers and make positive changes to their community.
And it’s all thanks to a new umbrella organisation which has been bringing teenagers together and opening their eyes to engagement and opportunity.
While many are quick to dismiss and write off a whole generation, the Portadown Youth Providers Forum – a collaborative network of organisations – has been working together to improve the lives of all young people in and around the Co Armagh town.
It was only officially launched in May, but already those involved have witnessed a force for good at work.
Ruth Cranston is a representative of the Edgarstown Residents’ Association, and chairperson of the newly-formed forum, which also includes YMCA Portadown, Seagoe Youth Group, Scotch Street Youth and Community Centre, Community Intercultural Programme Oasis , St Mary’s Youth Centre and NI Alternatives, and is supported by ABC Council, Education Authority and PSNI.
Explaining how – and why – it came to be, Ruth told Armagh I: “Funding is getting harder and harder to get and it was about trying to pool all the resources for the Portadown locality and trying to share out.
Young people making a difference to their town.
“We came together and we organised a Hallowe’en event and it took place down in St Mary’s and it was great that all organisations were represented there. All young people were there in the same facility and you’re tackling that cross-community element. But also, you’re not having the likes of the police and the fire service coming out to each of the centres and doing the same thing over and over again.
“It’s trying to provide services so that there’s no duplication and that young people can come to us on a Tuesday, they can go to the YM on a Wednesday, they can go to Seagoe on a Thursday, and we would all very much be pushing young people to avail of all the services through all the centres.
“For ourselves in Edgarstown, we have a youth drop-in on a Tuesday night. We have a kids club. Some of them have intermediate sessions. There is something on every night of the week within Portadown and it’s all youth driven.
The Portadown Youth Providers Forum – an umbrella group of seven local organisations – was officially launched in May.
“Certainly during the summer, we all have summer interventions, so we’re up to our eyes in programmes so that young people aren’t out on the streets, engaging in anti-social behaviour… we’re trying to engage them into more positive programmes, which has been great.
“ It is just about using what’s there, because with funding, obviously, we’ve all been hit and and there’s cuts, so it’s trying to use what we have and use it in a way that is for the betterment of young people in the area.”
The forum has been allowing the Portadown’s youth to get together and mix and engage with each other, putting aside perceived differences and realising there is more to unite than divide them.
They have been able to build self-confidence, make friendships and set aside suspicion and mistrust.
Making reindeers to be sold in Belfast last Christmas.
“The first event was down in St Mary’s, and it was a wee bit like, ‘oh, I’m not so sure, why are we going to St Mary’s?’. But we’re three or four events in and you can see relationships already forming, and that’s just by engaging,” explained Ruth.
“Lots of times, it’s maybe coming from parents, ‘you don’t want to be going to there’. Young people are really open and they’re keen. They don’t care who you are or where you’re from. It’s a bit of craic, there’s a bit of fun and they’re more than happy to engage and it’s been great.
“We are taking part in a programme that’s run through the council here, at the end of July and all through August. It’s going to be run in the People’s Park. That’s not an obstacle anymore, which is great; it has been in the past, but they just see that for what it is – it’s sports and it’s lots of different things run every week, every Wednesday, and it’s just not an obstacle anymore.
“This summer programme is more for teens because that is a real issue. There’s plenty for them to do, but it’s just getting into the wrong company out and about, especially the mad months. July has been difficult, because they’re involved in bonfires and bands, so this is targeted at more sort of 13 to 15 or 16.
“We try to have an action plan. The whole purpose is that we can be responsive to need. So it’s not about actually sitting a year in advance and saying this is what we’re going to deliver. Whenever the rioting happened in June, lots of us were able to come together.
The forum has brought together young people from across Portadown for a host of activities.
“ In Edgarstown, we have a detached team, so we were able to come together and get representatives from each of those organisations. Yes, some of them had to close their centres because of the locality of them but actually, it didn’t stop there. We were able to go out onto the street and actually engage those young people.
“It means so much, relationships, even staff wise, and there’s so much learning. We all aren’t good at everything, so it’s being able to learn from each other as well, which has been great.”
The first event was held last autumn and several others followed before the formal forum was actually launched in May; all involved realised that it was an initiative worth pursuing and developing.
And it has made a real difference, with leaders taking as much from the experience as the young people involved.
“We had set up the forum and we had met and we said, ‘right, we want to run something collectively’, so Hallowe’en was the first thing,” said Ruth. “We then had a Christmas event. Basically, we got together in the YM and we all made items to sell. The Education Authority run an event with stalls down in Grand Central Station in Belfast at Christmas time. They all got together, made wee reindeers out of tree trunks. We made Christmas cards, we decorated bags.
“So all of the young people engaged in all of that. We then took all the stuff and took some of the young people down to sell at Central Station and, oh my goodness, I think we were the top, we made the most money on the day!
“It was great then that they actually saw the stuff that they made, people were buying it, so there was a social economy side to it as well, and that’s what we’re going to be doing this year again.
“The feedback, even from parents, has been significant. It’s great to see young people growing. We have had a number of young people who came in here and didn’t know anybody and would have been very quiet and removed. We had actually taken 22 young people away to Manchester for four days and to see the difference in some young people, it’s just amazing, that they just have the right support.
“That’s the one thing that I would say with the forum. It’s being encouraged from every youth centre. It used to be that, if you went to one youth centre that was it. You weren’t told to go and avail of everything, whereas I think now that’s changing.
“We don’t want it just to be that you can only go on a Tuesday night, because that’s the youth centre that you go to. We want them to avail of all of that, and I think that’s really important for them to grow.”
While the forum involves seven organisations from across Portadown, it is by no means limited to those alone.
The important thing is extending opportunities and activities for all young people and to give them something productive to focus on and enjoy.
Young people avail of a wider range of opportunities as a result of the Portadown Youth Providers Forum.
Added Ruth: “We always knew that there was a need for it and we actually spent some time, all of the staff, getting our terms of reference, the memorandum of understanding, that everybody knows why we’re here, what we’re doing and this is the way forward. I think it’s beneficial to do that, that it’s not ‘we’ll just rock up here and have a meeting and go, right, we’ll organise an event’. We know what we’re doing. We know the needs of the area. We know the needs of the young people, and I think, all of the right people are around the table.
“That’s not saying that we’re not open to other members and we have put it out to all youth provision within the Portadown area, but some people just don’t have the capacity, and that’s okay. But equally, anything we ever do or put on, it’s open to anybody. It’s not a closed shop, it’s not if you’re not in the youth group, you can’t come. It’s certainly open to anybody that’s keen.
“Anybody that wants to avail or anybody that wants to become involved, the more the merrier, we are absolutely down for that.”
While there’s plenty of fun and craic to be had, the young people themselves have also been working hard to bring about positive changes.
If they’re not building bridges, they’re cleaning and tidying them!
For, earlier this month, many of the youth providers came together with their young people to tackle litter, weeds and graffiti around the Bann Bridge; armed with litter-pickers, paintbrushes, gardening tools and plenty of enthusiasm, they rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in and made an incredible difference.
Their hard work, teamwork and determination helped transform the area into a cleaner, brighter and more welcoming place for everyone to enjoy.
And what’s better still is that it was their idea to do it!
Great craic and festive fun!
“We don’t want to be putting words into young people’s mouths. This is very much led by young people. That wasn’t we’ll sit down and we’ll tell the young people that we’re going to do a community clean-up. That came from them,” said Ruth.
“ So it’s being proactive in that they want to see their communities change. They want to have an input and it’s great to see that. We know all too well that you paddle your own canoe, you look after your own house and that’s sort of it. So that is something that they’re really keen to do and, again, when we did that down the Bann, they’re really keen to actually go into their own communities.
“That was supposed to take place at the time of the riots and we had to postpone it. We did have the likes of the Blitz team, from the council, who were also going to come out and help, so we’re hopeful to get that definitely back on the cards and continue with that throughout the year, not just sporadically.”
For Ruth and all involved with the various organisations, they are noticing a marked change in attitude, collaboration and forward-thinking and they believe it is a model which would work well in other areas too.
And what they are doing really serves to dispel the negative and misplaced opinion that many often have of ‘young people nowadays’.
“It has been welcomed from so many statutory agencies,” added Ruth. “ Portadown, for many years, has been a difficult one, in that there was a lot of gatekeeping. It used to be that nobody would ever tell you, ‘I got this wee pot of funding or why don’t you go for this?’. Whereas now we’re in a position that the right people are around the table and we’re all here for the greater good. We’re here for the right reasons and I think that’s so important.
“I know I speak for for all of the organisations. The young people are fantastic, they really are, and they can be a real asset to their communities. I think people just tar them all with the wrong brush and that’s so unfortunate.”
To find out more or get in touch with the Portadown Youth Providers Forum, you can check them out on Facebook.
