The council owned building had been out of use for years
Belfast City Council has welcomed new tenants Streetbeat into recently renovated premises at the former Upper Ardoyne Youth Club.
The Streetbeat Youth Project is a registered charity working to help young people fulfil their potential, while responding to their need for support and guidance. The building, located within the boundary of Ballysillan Playing Fields in north Belfast, is owned by the council, but has been out of use for a number of years.
Following an “expression of interest” process with the community and voluntary sector, Streetbeat will now deliver a range of youth-based services and activities from the premises, including mentoring services, drop-in day and evening groups for local residents, and outdoor adventure programmes.
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Extensive repair works have also been carried out to the interior and exterior of the building by the council prior to reopening.
Officially opening the updated building this week, the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Tracy Kelly, said: “I am delighted to welcome Streetbeat to their new home and am confident they will build a strong community support network from this base.
“It’s always good to breathe life back into a vacant building and, together with redevelopment works at the neighbouring Ballysillan Park, this is a really positive step forward for the local community.
“This building will provide a place for young people from Greater Ballysillan and Upper Ardoyne to spend time together, enable community leaders to deliver a diversionary programme to reduce the risk of anti-social behaviour and open up access to services to enable users to fulfil their full potential.”
Steve Morrison, CEO of Streetbeat said: “This building provides Streetbeat with an amazing opportunity to deliver much needed services to young people in the area. We are thankful to Belfast City Council for renovating the building to such a high standard, giving us an amazing modern facility to operate from, allowing us to continue our work helping young people fulfil their potential and provide them with long term support for many years to come. “
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