Westport youth facility closes

Westport Youth facility ‘The Cove’ closes next Monday


Neill O’Neill

ONE Of Westport’s much-heralded facilities for young people - The Cove Youth Cafe on The Fairgreen - will close its doors for the final time next Monday, June 30.
The reasons cited are due to a lack of funding, and the under use of the facility by teenagers, which was often trumpeted by former members of the now defunct Westport Town Council as a project they were extremely proud of. The youth counselling service which was located in The Cove building, will now relocate to the nearby Family Resource Centre on The Fairgreen and will not be affected by the closure of the building.
The Cove Youth Café has been in operation since November 2007. Prior to this a lot of work was done locally with young people, parents and volunteers with the support of the Westport Family and Community Resource Centre and Westport NYP.
In 2007, funding of €200,000 was made available, primarily though the Dormant Accounts, but also through Westport Town Council, the Western Regional Drugs Taskforce, the ESB Electric Aid fund and the Sisters of Mercy, meaning there was an ability to employ a full-time youth worker, with support funding to deliver on projects.
Over the last seven years the Cove project was co-managed by Foróige and a steering committee which consisted of young people, parents, representatives from the HSE, the Gardaí, Westport Family and Community Resource Centre, local schools, Westport Town Council and Westport Chamber of Commerce.
Much of the initial funding ran out by September 2009, which meant that The Cove had to then lose its youth worker. It was decided that the best way forward was for Westport Family and Community Resource Centre to run the project in conjunction with the steering committee and volunteers, supported by funding from Westport Town Council and fundraising initiatives.
The Cove also benefitted from the support of a part-time worker through the Community Employment scheme operated by Westport Chamber of Commerce, and have had three people fill this role since 2010. The Cove would like to particularly acknowledge their work, as without them, they say they could not have stayed open until now. Also during this phase, some funding was received from Pobal, the ESB Electric Aid and also the National Office of Suicide Prevention, which led to several successful projects being carried out with staff, volunteers and young people, such as the Graffiti Project, Westport’s Got Talent and Battle of the Bands among others.
Speaking on the closure, Eoghan Murphy, Co-ordinator at Westport Family and Community Resource Centre, said that the last two years have proved to be especially difficult for the centre, due to a sharp decline in available funding and increasingly poor attendance by young people.
“The latter is not an uncommon phenomenon with this type of youth facility,” he said. “Sometimes an image problem develops, that can be hard to shake off. In the case of The Cove, it was perceived by many teenagers to be only for a certain type of young person. Efforts were made to address this stereotyping but it proved to be quite ingrained and difficult to change.”