Parents Set Up Youth Club So Teenagers Can Get Together At Weekends

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Launching a new youth club for Tralee were, in front; Jenny Slattery, Elizabeth Slattery, Niamh Higgins and Katie Kennedy. At back; Olga Slattery, Orla Higgins, Catriona Kennedy, Lisa Martin and Carol Nyhan. Photo by Dermot Crean

A GROUP of parents from Tralee have set up a new youth club so that their young teenagers can socialise somewhere safe on Friday nights.

The new club is the brainchild of Lisa Martin and Catriona Kennedy who found that their teenage girls wanted to go to discos, but were obviously too young.

“We all remember Social Action discos back when we were young in Tralee, but there is nothing like that now for young teenagers,” said Lisa.

“I put something up on ‘Tralee Do You Know’ looking for parents to get involved and Garrett Hartveld, Youth Work Development Manager from KDYS, got in touch. The stipulation for joining was that if a parent signed up their child, they had to get involved themselves,” said Lisa.

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“We got contacted about by a lot of parents wanting to get their children into the club, but had to turn down about 50% of them because they could not commit themselves to it.”

Nevertheless, they had no problem getting the maximum of 25 kids — ranging from first year to third year students — who will register for the new club on this Friday night.

The club will be affiliated with the KDYS. Meetings will be held there and they can use the facilities.  Parents will take the KDYS Induction Training, a nationally recognised programme, to cover the basics of youth work.

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Also, the parents and teens will organise activities such as cinema outings, bowling and discos with other youth clubs affiliated with KDYS, around the local catchment area. All the while there will be at least four parents on every outing to accompany the 25 teens.

The youth group is full and they have 25 more on the waiting list, so maybe other parents will commit to forming another club, because the demand is obviously there in such a big town as Tralee.

One Comment

  1. Matty O'Leary says:

    It is great to see young teenagers socialise somewhere safe on Friday nights because of KDYS.

    If Irish society wants our teenagers to make a smooth transition into being socially responsible young adults – intervention is necessary to create a future socially cohesive Irish society.

    Thank you to KDYS.

    Of course, Iceland is a great model for any nation in this regard.

    How Iceland Saved Its Teenagers – BBC News:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDbD_JSCrNo

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