Derry community youth group facing funding crisis

A Galliagh-based youth group has received unanimous backing from Derry City and Strabane District councillors as it faces what Cllr Sandra Duffy (Sinn Féin) described as a “funding crisis”.
Derry City and Strabane District councillors passed an emergency proposal regarding On Street Community Youth at December’s full Council meeting.
Brought by Cllr Duffy, the proposal read: “Council will work proactively with On Street Community Youth to assist with funding for the coming year and to identify sustainable, long-term funding solutions, enabling the organisation to continue delivering vital youth and community services from the Council-owned Galliagh Community Centre”.
Opening the discussion, Cllr Duffy said she was not going to go into a lot of details because “a lot of the information is not in the public domain at this point”.
“I just want to put on record that there is a funding crisis at the minute in terms of On Street Community Youth,” she added. “They are an anchor tenant in our community centre in Galliagh.
“I have been talking to the manager. I have been talking to our Council officers. I have been talking to the Housing Executive and Department for Communities (DfC) over the course of the weekend in relation to some of the issues.
“While they are called On Street Community Youth, they do so much more than youth services, particularly over the summer months we have seen the really successful Galliagh Féile being led by them, with all the community taking part and it has really worked to address a lot of the anti-community behaviour we have seen in recent years.
“They provide services from young children to our older population within the community centre, so any danger to them at this point, I don’t think we would want to see,” said Cllr Duffy.
She added the proposal would allow Council officers to continue to work with On Street Community Youth to find a “short-term solution and allow them to explore long-term funding, sustainable solutions into the future, to ensure their security, and allow them to provide services within the Galliagh community”.
Mayor Ruairí McHugh allowed Cllr Duffy’s motion, which was seconded by Cllr Christopher Jackson (Sinn Féin), “given the extent of the problem and the time of year it is”.
Supporting the proposal, Cllr Brian Tierney (SDLP), a board member of On Street Community Youth, said he had raised the issue with Council’s CEO a number of months previously.
“I am happy to say Council officers have been working with On Street Community Youth’s management board to try and find a solution,” said Cllr Tierney.
“It will be an absolute shame to see anything happen to this organisation or those facilities in terms of the community services they continue to run,” he added.
Alderman Niree McMorris (DUP) said her party had no hesitation in supporting Cllr Duffy’s motion.
Referring to a recent attack on a young person in Ebrington Square, Ald McMorris said she would like to put on record that the Waterside is “seeing a massive deficit within youth workers and youth provision”.
People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin said organisations delivering youth services should receive “proper funding”.
“I think it is disgraceful that any organization providing vital services to young people in our communities would be facing cuts or would be facing uncertainty about their future,” added Cllr Harkin.
“We have become a child-friendly city and I think we have to make sure that we are fighting on every front to deliver on that promise.
“We know that there are a lot of challenges now for young people. There should be more funding for youth services, not less. And that is why I think as a Council we should do everything we can to make sure that these services are supported in Galliagh, but not just in Galliagh, right across the city and right across the entire district.”
In a social media post, a spokesperson for On Street Community Youth said: "On Friday of last week On Street Community Youth received the very difficult news that our most recent application for funding to The National Lottery had been unsuccessful at the last hurdle.
"For over 12 months we have been working within our community and with the Lottery team to secure funding that would allow for the continued growth of youth services in Galliagh.
"This will have been a difficult decision for the Lottery who have been the most supportive and fervent backer of On Streets for over 20 years but in any funding environment there are increasing challenges as funding becomes scarcer and where the demands and needs on that funding are growing daily.
"We want to place on record our thanks to the staff from The National Lottery who have been there to advise and guide us, unfortunately this was not to be.
"This will inevitably have a major impact on the ability of On Streets to continue to deliver the myriad youth and community services that have become so familiar and commonplace within Galliagh and across the wider community.
"We have held back in announcing this news as we wated to deliver our amazing Galliagh Christmas Programme in the most positive way, a programme where pur staff and volunteers have been able to welcome and support hundreds of our residents to be part of this celebration and in doing so showcase all that is good about Galliagh.
"At no time did we want to upset this occasion, but we are now faced with the daunting situation that many services we have come to enjoy are now at risk of continuing.
"On Street Community Youth in its 30 years of representing Galliagh has always been about working with other community partners and funders to ensure that the needs of this community continue to be met.
“Be that the delivery of our broad range of youth services, including the ongoing presence of our street team who are always on hand evenings and weekends offering support and a listening ear to our young people; the delivery of Galliagh Youth Club where we have campaigned and fought for many years with our youth and community partners to secure funding that would deliver core youth club services in the heart of Galliagh, the first time this has happened in over 50 years; the development of Galliagh Community Centre in the last three years has been one of our proudest undertakings as we work with our fellow Galliagh groups in Teach Na Failte, CRJ, Galliagh Women's Group and Rainbow Child and Family Team to ensure that we house services for residents that are built on their needs and which complement and support each organisation and ensures that funding is not displaced from our community; we also note the delivery of one of the cities fastest growing and largest community festivals in Galliagh Feile that has been an overwhelming success for the last two years and with exciting plans for 2026 and beyond.
"These and many other services have provided the basis for Galliagh to flourish and to unite, and they must be protected if we are to fulfil our ambitions to make this community one that is fairly represented and provided for and which begins to see the modern development of services and facilities that it has sadly lacked for too long.
"We want to place on record our thanks to our committee members, our volunteers, the many youth and community organisations that we partner with, our elected representatives, all our funders to date and especially to all our residents who have become part of our story.
“This is certainly a worrying time for On Streets and in particular our staff and our users. We want to reassure that we are doing all we can to overcome the situation we now face, and we are committed to finding the means to secure these core services for Galliagh.
"There is never a good time to announce such news, but we do so in the knowledge that we have the support and backing of our wider community.
“We now must look to others for help and assistance so we can continue to deliver these essential youth and community services in Galliagh which are so badly needed, and which are now at risk."