Kinsale Youth Community Centre Faces Closure

 (JJ Hurley)

Kinsale Youth Community Centre faces an uncertain future due to a lack of funding for its youth worker from central government.

Now in existence for eight years, the securing of a youth worker, Sean Kirschhofer, three years ago, along with a permanent home in the town suggested a bright future.

However, a lack of government funding for its youth worker has put the facility’s future in jeopardy, a point not lost on one of the centre’s directors, Jerry Rice.

The centre  has been instrumental in providing vital support and guidance to the young people of Kinsale and surrounding districts,’ Jerry said.

‘It could be set to close due to lack of core funding. KYCC is a vital tool in reducing young people at risk, helping them to gain essential life skills, overcoming barriers and unlock their potential.

‘This funding is now urgently needed to keep the centre open, it has been highly successful over the past eight years, due to the support of the community.

 ‘Now we need the government to intervene and to keep this centre open and keep providing a safe and secure place for young people.’

With over 200 young people on its books, the local facility provides an important suite of services to town and districts’ young people.

For  a sixth-year student at the local Kinsale Community School and also a member of the Youth Council at the premises, Chloe Hennessy Buttimer, the loss of the centre will be a hammer blow to the town’s young people.

‘The loss of the centre would basically leave us hanging around, as it gives us a place to call home,’ Chloe said.

While the centre has survived on the generosity of individuals and business, the funding issue has been raised with several members of the current government, including the Taoiseach and Helen McEntee who visited Kinsale, and most recently, the Minister for Finance, Jack Chambers.

However, there has been no positive news for the centre since those engagements.

Cllr Marie O’Sullivan, who has long championed the youth initiative,  and has seen the benefit of the work by Sean and the volunteers, described it as a place close to her heart.

‘This centre provides a second home and safe space to many children, offering them hot meals and a place for them to come to after school or on a Saturday,’ she said.

‘I met last week with the student council from KYCC and to quote them in their own words which probably sums it up perfectly, ‘this is the place we can come to and be ourselves’.

The Cllr has called on national politicians to address the issue as a matter of urgency.

For Sean Kirschhofer, who has overseen the success of the project as it has grown, fears the effects its closure would have on the young adults in the area.

‘The closure of the Kinsale Youth Community Centre would mean the loss of a vital safe space for local youth, removing essential support in education, mental health, and social activities,’ he said

‘This would particularly impact LGBTQ+ youth and young people with autism, who depend on the centre for an inclusive and accepting environment. Over 200 young people would be affected, leaving a significant gap in youth services in Kinsale.’

While the centre waits for a decision on the government to provide funding, in a bid to keep the centre open a website setting out its many aims and objectives has had a facility added to make a donation.

To find out more, log onto www.kinsaleycc.ie

Kinsale Community Youth Centre Faces Closure due to lack of Funding