Fermanagh Youth Bank back up and running

Planning is underway for Fermanagh Youth Bank as they plan to support even more youth led initiatives with grand aid in 2015.

The Fermanagh Trust established Youth Bank, working in partnership with Youth Action NI to build leadership, allocate resources to youth based initiatives, meet real community need and tackle issues of direct importance to Fermanagh’s young people. The Youth Bank members become the grant makers, with direct involvement in the research, planning and decision making.

Last year the team awarded grants to five innovative and important projects totalling £5000. Working together with the support of the Fermanagh Trust they established priorities and criteria, assessed applications and made tough decisions in order to support local youth groups to help build community relations, develop positive mental health and enable young people with disabilities to compete in sporting activities.

Youth Bank hope to reach even more young people this year. Currently the group are making decisions about community needs and looking at ways of having an impact on young people. Applications will be opening later in the spring, then it will be down to the serious business of delivering much needed grants benefitting local people.

Lauri McCusker, Director of the Fermanagh Trust said “We look forward to supporting Fermanagh Youth Bank and working alongside Dwayne and Daniel who are chairing the team. This is a great opportunity for these young people to develop a range of skills and experience and of course help make a positive impact within Fermanagh. What’s great is that this is a youth led initiative. They are the grant makers; this is their programme to address the key needs for Fermanagh’s young people.”