Teenage 'time bomb'

Kilcullen has a teenage 'time bomb' waiting to explode. And a full time youth worker is needed now if serious consequences from that are to be avoided.



That was a view strongly expressed at last night’s public meeting in the Community Centre, organised by the County Kildare Leader Partnership (CKLP) to see what Kilcullen needs in terms of the next County Social Inclusion plan.

The plan, for the years 2010-2013, is currently at the public consultation stage, and it is hoped to begin implementation before the end of this year.

Jim Kiely, who represents both the GAA and the Kilcullen Lions, said that in five year’s time there’s going to be a ‘huge’ number of teenagers as the children of the much-expanded Kilcullen population grow up.

“We’re already seeing the youngsters hanging around the streets, and that’s an indication of a problem that we need to deal with before it arrives,” he said.

Orla O’Neill, representing the Community Playground Committee said she had lately seen young people congregating under the bridge, something that she hasn’t seen before and which is of concern.

“We have great sports and other facilities here,” Jim Kiely said. “But that’s not enough, and we need to be working on other ways of giving them something to do.”

Dave Prendergast, who with the Lions has been involved in the development of the recently-opened weekly Solas Youth Cafe, said the young people ‘need to be encouraged in off the streets’.

Peggy Walker, who has worked with young children through the Community Playgroup since the 70s, suggested that sports clubs can’t always attract young people. “The Kilcullen Cycling Club, for instance, has nobody under 30, no matter how hard they try to get youngsters interested.”

It was agreed in the discussion that there needed to be a greater linkage between the existing organisations for young people of different age groups, with a view to encouraging them to move from one group to the next as they got older.

“Kilcullen could do with a nearly full-time youth worker across the different age groups,” Orla O’Neill said, adding that this should work from pre-school upwards.

The CKLP representatives said it might be possible for their organisation to bring all the groups together for this purpose.

The need for some kind of a Community Forum was also discussed, and the CKLP said it would be prepared to facilitate the establishment of such a forum, where every group and organisation in the town could have its views and needs represented and aired.

The CKLP is a new organisation formed from the former KELT, ASK and OAK groups. It will soon also include Athy CDP, Newbridge CDP and Northwest Kildare CDP.

Brian Byrne.


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