Overdue: 281 days
Public benefits
Our group has a series of purposes that we feel needed to be addressed within our own village. Firstly we help provide an alternative to alcohol, drugs and anti-social behavior through constructive volunteering and inter-generational work. We also aim to assist and educate the elderly and vulnerable of our village through several different services
we provide. Our team of young volunteers visit the elderly residents every night for two hours, this helps provide some company and comfort for our older citizens. We also provide a service where some volunteers carry out menial tasks for people who wouldn't normally be able to things themselves. Another service we provide is a 24/7 mobile phone contact where residents can call if they need help or have concerns. Our overall objective is to achieve a sense of village pride and community spirit where all members of our village feel safe, comfortable and proud of their area. We help achieve this through the reduction in anti-social behavior and replacing the misconceptions between older and younger generations with a mutual trust and respect. We feel that the heritage and culture of our small village has been forgotten about or pushed to one side and we believe by reintroducing this sense of heritage can contribute to our ultimate goal of putting unity back into community. Beneficiaries: Street Safe Ardglass Group have a number of beneficiaries. Our main beneficiaries would be the elderly and vulnerable adults of the village. The service we provide is one that our elderly residents now cherish and rely on. The way in which we benefit them is through providing a listening ear and some young company, we also can enable them to contact statutory bodies if they ever needed to by providing contacts. We can also carry out small odd jobs like taking out wheelie bins, putting up Christmas decorations and power hosing garden pathways that make their lives a bit easier. Our other main beneficiary would be the youth of the village. We truly believe that our young people can really make an impact in our area. In a rural community there can be little for young people to do, especially in the evenings and at weekends. This has led to a growing underage drinking and drug problem in our area. Street Safe provide an alternative to this. We give something productive for the young people to do with their time, we give them a purpose and a role within their community that greatly benefits them. Our team currently consists of around 25 young people aged 14-21 so young people from all backgrounds can come together in a socially beneficial way. We provide training in various areas that may help with their social skills and possibly even with their future career paths. We also provide awareness courses along with the PSNI to educate our young people about the dangers of drugs and alcohol that allowed them to ask any questions they felt needed answered. Our young people also receive certificates of appreciation and can be given a reference to accompany job or university applications from the group. Also we will be signing up to the Millenium Volunteer Awards in due course. Harm and Private Benefit: As a not for profit community safety project we see no private financial benefit that can source from within our group. We do however make a point of sourcing all our purchases from within the Ardglass area whenever possible to support local business owners. For example we would source our tools from the local hardware store and hold our meetings, fundraisers and launches in local facilities. We do not believe that there is any notable harm the can be caused from this project.
... [more] [less]What your organisation does
Our organisation, Street Safe, is a community safety project which revolves around three key objectives. Firstly to give young people a role and direction and help steer them away from alcohol, drugs and anti-social behaviour. Secondly we enable the older recipients of the service to feel safe, comfortable and aware of all the benefits and
facilities available to them. Lastly we aim to enhance the Ardglass community as a safe, comfortable and progressive place to live where people are proud of their community and culture is promoted. The Street Safe group is completely unique as we are an organisation almost completely ran by the local youth of the area. On a daily scale, our young volunteers visit the homes of elderly residents of the local village and ensure that they have all doors and windows locked, they are warm enough and that they feel comfortable. We understand that elderly people can get lonely and our volunteers spend between 10-30 minutes with them each evening chatting. The group goes out between the hours of 7-9pm each night and run a 24/7 helpline for anyone who we can assist. On a more general scale, we help provide an alternative to destructive, anti-social behaviour by offering a volunteering opportunity for young people that helps them build on skills and gain qualifications whilst helping develop their community. We have provided the opportunity for young people to learn about the dangers of alcohol and drugs and take part in a vulnerable adults course. We hope that once the group is more developed, we will have the funds to stage events in the area promoting village pride, local culture and local heritage. We are currently working on projects that promote the rich history of the local fishing industry and possibly introducing the option for local residents to take Irish language classes.
... [more] [less]The charity’s classifications
- The advancement of citizenship or community development
- The relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage
Who the charity helps
- Addictions (drug/solvent/alcohol abuse)
- Community safety/crime prevention
- Ethnic minorities
- General public
- Older people
- Voluntary and community sector
- Youth (14-25 year olds)
How the charity works
- Community development
- Counselling/support
- Cultural
- Education/training
- Environment/sustainable development/conservation
- Heritage/historical
- Volunteer development
- Youth development
