Celebrations as Youth Cafe opens its doors after six years of hard work
ANN CASEY
The Ashbourne Youth Centre was officially opened last week by Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone and Social Welfare Minister, Regina Doherty.
The Youth Centre, which was formerly referred to as Youth Café, is located in the town centre just opposite Lidl and caters for up to 150 young local people.
“Exactly six years ago, I founded a small committee with the aim of setting up and opening somewhere for young people of the town to hang out, and I was truly honoured to help officially open the Ashbourne Youth Centre. While not an easy task, the committee members and volunteers have done an absolutely fantastic job and created an amazing place to serve the young people of Ashbourne for many years,” said Minister Doherty.
“A huge thank you must go to the community of Ashbourne who supported this project along the way, whether by taking part in the annual fun run, sponsoring an event, donating a pool table or by throwing some change in a bucket. This project would not have made it this far without your help.”
GALLERY: Opening of the Ashbourne Youth Cafe
Cllr Alan Tobin, chairman of the Ashbourne Youth Centre said it was fantastic to have both Ministers open the facility.
"We could cater for even more young people here than we do, if we had more volunteers," he said.
"The volunteers we have are super and we offer training to anyone who wants to be a volunteer," he said.
"It has taken us six years to get here. We raised funds through the 6 and 10k fun run, collecting Christmas trees after Christmas and carol singing.
"Local business people and tradespeople have been phenomenal to us," he said.
Cllr Tobin paid particular tribute to Ashbourne Men's Shed who did invaluable work, tiling, putting in floors and other work around the centre.
"It has been a real community effort," he said.
The centre is open at various times for different age groups and caters for young people from 10 to 18 years.
The Youth Centre is located in a shop unit that has been purpose-fitted for young people who are members of the Foroige Youth Club to come and ‘hang out’, play games, socialise, learn new skills and much more. The centre was completed using government grants, community fundraising and donations from individuals and businesses in the town. In use since last summer, the centre is also used by the Garda Diversion Project and the local Men’s Shed group.
Deputy Doherty who established the founding committee for the Ashbourne centre was also involved in the project to set up the Pulse Youth Café in Ratoath.