Closure threat hanging over Derry Youth and Community Workshop 

The threat of closure is hanging over the iconic Derry Youth and Community Workshop (DYCW) as well as several other community organisations across the city and district.

DYCW, which employs 27 people and caters for more than 360 young people across three educational programmes, may have to close its doors at the end of March 2023, due to funding cuts.

According to Declan Doherty, DYCW’s chief executive, the Women’s Centre, Triax, 4Rs Recycling - New 2 You, and Job Directions in Strabane are also at risk of closure.

Speaking to Derry Now, Declan said: “DYCW operates largely thanks to EU funding from the European Social Fund (ESF). ESF funding for community groups in Northern Ireland totals £45 million per year. 

“At the time of Brexit, we were promised that ESF would be replaced by the UK Prosperity Fund or the Levelling Up Fund. However, what they are coming out with now is a package where they are saying there will be up to £20 million available, in the new year, which is less than half of what we got from the EU.

“Crucially, no application forms have been issued for the new funding scheme, yet we are being told they hope to have applicants processed before 31 March, 2023. 

“Our ESF funding runs out at the end of March, which means we are not in the position of having to give our employees 90 days notice of redundancy because we have no guarantee of our funding continuing and continuing at its previous level,” said Declan.

Declan said DYCW would have to apply for the new funding and it would be an open bid.

He added: “The other difficulty is the last guidelines stated they would favour consortiums and large companies.

“DYCW is a small charity as are most of the charities in Derry, so we can’t compete individually for the funding. We are going to have to form some sort of collective, which may or may work.

“The worst case scenario for DYCW is that we are looking at closure and 27 redundancies. 

“At the moment, we have three ESF programmes. We have a disability programme which involves about 50 people most of whom have special educational needs. We also have a SEEDS programme for 16 to 24 year olds. There are 70 involved in that and they come in for different courses and support in putting together CVs and filling out job applications.

“Our biggest programme is called the LEMIS and at the minute we have 240 people attending that,” said Declan.

In the North of Ireland, 1,730 people work under ESF. 20 out of the 27 staff at DYCW are employed under ESF.

“This means if the ESF funding goes, the viability of the whole DYCW charity goes,” said Declan. 

“Because we have no funding guarantees, it is in fact quite frightening. We were faced with a similar situation about 15 years ago. At that time, they introduced a programme called Steps to Success, which they wanted run by conglomerates with a minimum turnover of £12 million per year. Basically, big English companies could come in and they would not have a clue about the North West but they would have teams of solicitors professional at making grant applications. 

“It would be hard for DYCW, a small community group, to compete against that. We have talked to local politicians and they are supportive but there is no Assembly and they have no money.

“People in the North West need to be aware, the current services of the Women’s Centre, Triax, 4Rs Recycling - New 2 You, and Job Directions in Strabane, are all at risk. DYCW was established in 1978 and this is the biggest threat to our existence since the day we were founded.”