Cafe ‘Boomerang’ to be opened for the Summer!

It is hoped the long-awaited youth cafe for Drogheda now named the Boomerang Cafe will be open to young people by summer of this year.

A presentation of progress to date was brought to the Drogheda Borough Council meeting, where two students of Greenhills joined Catriona Cullligan and Sr Agnes Byrne of Drogheda Youth Development to ask for continuing support. TY students Michell Maguire and Chloe Leech outlined where the plans are, and why the need is greater than ever for the cafe, which has been in the pipeline since 2006.

 

‘This initiative was started by students from our school almost six years ago, because of a lack of youth services,’ Chloe told the members, ‘and we would love to see the cafe up and running soon’. ‘We have raised over €1,000 from three recent events - a Friendship Day, bag-packing, and a bake sale - and we still need as much funding as possible for the cafe to open in the summer,’ added Michelle.

 

The new cafe will become a one stop service where young people aged between 12 and 18 can go for recreation, advice and support. The centre will be open seven days a week and will include everything from a band rehearsal space to educational rooms. The project is being championed by Drogheda Youth Development but has the support of all the local and state agencies with responsibility for young people.

 

The plans for the new centre are well underway and planning permission has been secured, however a further €300,000 in fundraising is needed to fit out the building before it opens to young people in the town.‘With young entrepreneurs like this on board, we’ll get there in no time,’ added Sr Agnes, ’ but we still need the support of the council and other local areas of the local community. ‘With so much suicide and depression ruining our society, we are hoping to get Headstrong ( the National Centre for Youth Mental Health) on board, and provide a safe, alcohol-free place for Drogheda teenagers’.

 

The idea for the Youth Cafe was first muted back in 2006 when the Young Social Innovators group in Our Lady’s College, Greenhills explained that there was no safe space for them to meet their friends, have a bite to eat and just be young.

 

Author:YSI (originally featured in Drogheda Independent)