Newtownbreda United Churches

So what's been happening?

The NUC Connecting with Youth programme is an ongoing initiative that aims to engage young people in the Newtownbreda area.

After a break of almost a year due to financial restrictions, Newtownbreda United Churches are thankful and eager to report that the project “Connecting with Youth” is again impacting young people in the Newtownbreda area. A new Project co-ordinator, Andrea Gibson was appointed in May 07 and she is re-establishing links with the agencies in the area and making contact with the young people who congregate on the streets. Her main remit is to continue those activities that the young people were involved in previously namely, Midnight Soccer, the Street Teams, and Pool Competitions. We are now involved in widening these activities, and when relationships are strengthened needs can then be more accurately identified.

Youth On Their Own Information Cards - YOTO

Connecting With Youth had received a grant from Castlereagh
Community Safety Partnership to create and distribute information cards to young people on a range of teenage issues. The previous youth council had already done good work but were unable to continue. Six different young people volunteered to complete the work, Courtney,
James, Jonny, Rebecca, Suzie and Taryn.

The first set of 1000 cards has been printed and distributed
thanks to the very hard work of the young people. These young
people gave up a couple of hours on Friday nights to brainstorm
the issues and select a topic to work on at home. The name of
the cards YOTO was created by one of the young people. The cards
are divided into five sections each highlighting a very real issue for
young people. The information on the cards is aimed at secondary
school-aged pupils and were distributed to schools in the area,
namely Newtownbreda High, Knockbreda High and Wellington College.

The young people attended the schools to distribute the cards.
Courtney and Taryn performed a drama on teenage pregnancy to
highlight one issue included in the cards and Suzie gave a short talk
on the group and how the cards had been developed. The cards
were very well received and some schools mentioned using the cards
as a teaching aid in future lessons. Visit the YOTO web site.