Several people have contacted me about cuts in the youth sector through emails and private messages asking why nothing has been mentioned about it. This is a forum and anyone can start any discussion topic they want. Since nobody has taken up my request.........here we are a topic about funding cuts in youth work.
As far as i know €4m euro has been cut already and there are more similar cuts planned for at least the next 2 years. I can't talk about the impact on this across the board but within our own project i have seeing the effect on this coming towards summer programmes.
The amount of activities planned for this years summer programme has been greatly reduced this summer. Most planning is now centre based with the odd trip out for each group.
Any external facilitators have had to off been stopped due to no funds to keep paying them. Any hiring of venues has also had to stop from lack of funds.
No group will go on any residential trips this year, which is probably the highlight of most young people's involvement in a group.
Our annual community fun day has had to be cancelled which on average is attended by over 300 people. It's also a good way of putting the project out there and usually brings in a few new faces come September.
The only reason any summer programme is happening at all is from the purse strings been pulled since the cuts came into effect so they have also had an impact on week to week work.
I have seeing unemployment soar for young people aged between 16 and 21 and that looks like getting worse too. Early school leavers have not got a chance now when they leave school, which has left a large amount of teenagers with nothing to do from morning to night. Been under resourced now is not good enough.
All this is bad enough but there is a real fear for the future if there are to be more cuts. Most projects I have spoken to are in the same boat. Beyond that i don't know what type of an impact has been made but feel free to post your thoughts in this thread.
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