An organization working with young people in Belfast, Ireland, has received £6,500 from the Big Lottery Fund's Awards for All Programme.
The Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum will use the money to fund a summer fun day organized by youngsters from their "Let Youth Lead" project.
The Forum hopes to involvement in the project will encourage young people to transform their aspirations into lifelong success.
The family fun day will take place in Belfast's Waterworks Park on July 12, 2014.
Karen Rice, outreach and detached youth development worker for Let Youth Lead, said: "We don’t have a youth center in the area so for us it’s really important to get out on the street, engaging with young people and encouraging them to get involved in positive activities and learn new skills."
Rice said involvement with the project allows youngsters to gain valuable communication, organizational, and team-building skills as well as providing them with a chance to do something positive for the local community.
"From previous community events we’ve done you can see the sense of pride from the young people who have helped organize the events," Rice explained. "The young people are becoming role models to the younger ones who ask ‘When can I do that? When can I help out?'"
One such role model, Paul McMenamy, 18, had his to say: "I don’t have any extra-curricular activities in school so being involved in the club has really helped with my CV and application to university and kept me from just running about the streets."
The Big Lottery distributes 40% of the money the National Lottery sets aside for good causes. The money is used to provide assistance to community groups and projects that are believed to have a positive impact on health, education, and the environment.
