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September 9, 2007

Going Global - Newtownabbey Youthbank in Northern Ireland

YIP Canada has recently connected with Noreen Keers, the Coordinator of Newtownabbey Youthbank in Northern Ireland. She shares this mini profile of the Youthbank:

Newtownabbey is an urban area in County Antrim based just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland. At one stage it had the largest housing development in Europe, Rathcoole. It has seven schools and one university and its population in 2001 was just over 63,000. Further information on Newtownabbey can be obtained on the following website:www.newtownabbey.gov.uk.

Newtownabbey Youthbank has been operating for three years and has given out over 10,000 pounds (just over $20,000 CAD) to youth-led projects. The Youthbank has a further 14,000 to allocate by April 2009.

The YouthBank has assisted a variety of projects, including cross-community football tournaments, an information night about youth issues, an environmental project, a joint initiative on self defence between two boxing clubs within the borough, and a cross-community youth exchange calendar from Bosnia and Germany. Currently the Youthbank has a good range of members from across the community and is mixed gender; until recently the group had been predominantly male. Members are generally between the ages of 14 and 19.

The Newtownabbey Youthbank is linked with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.