Trim council pledges help to find new home for youth café

Trim Town Council is to investigate if it has any suitable sites where a portacabin could be located to accommodate the Reach Above Yourself (RAY) Youth Café. The youth café opened last summer and is currently renting a premises on High Street, but as no funding is available towards rent, the steering committee said this option is not financially sustainable. In advance of their April meeting, a presentation was given to Trim Town Councillors by three members of the RAY steering committee: Cathy Whelan, manager of the Meath Community Drug and Alcohol Response; Kay Harnett, manager of the TIDE centre, and Geraldine Maguire, youth leader with RAY, to seek the council's support in finding an alternative premises, or a site to locate a portacabin. Ms Whelan explained that many attempts had been made to open a youth café in Trim for many years. A business plan was prepared but funding for Meath had gone to a youth café in Navan. Rather than abandon their attempts, the agencies involved each put up a €1,000 to get the project off the ground and Meath Youth Federation provided the training. A premises was found on High Street for the café and while Ms Whelan said the premises is ideal as it is a large single room and doesn't take many people to monitor it, she said it is no longer sustainable for them to pay rent on the premises. The youth café is currently open two evenings per week and on Saturdays, but could be open more often if they had more volunteers. Ms Whelan said interest in the youth café is good with 16-20 people attending each time. A subscription of 50c is paid by the young people attending each night. The steering group can apply for the running of activities but they cannot get funding for rent or staff. Their worker is shared with TIDE. Ms Harnett said the premises doesn't have to be commercial and that a vacant house or somewhere to put a portacabin would also be welcome. She explained that they need somewhere that would be their own, a "home away from home". Cllr James O'shea suggested the community room at the Aura leisure centre and said that Aura management would be prepared to speak to a delegation from RAY. He also asked the town manager to look at a possbile site for a portacabin. Ms Harnett said there are some fine portacabins and this option would be very acceptable to them.