Limavady youth clean up estates

Members of the Roe Valley Residents Association, whose community centre is located in the Keady Way estate, explained that clean-up events such as the one held on Thursday (July 26) set a “very good example” and helped challenge negative perceptions of young people.

In what could be considered a relatively deprived estate, there was a palpable sense of community in the Keady Way area as both youth leaders and community workers organised the children into groups, dressed in high-visibility jackets.

The children then set about clearing the surrounding area of litter, carefully watched over by the adults leading the groups so that they did not cut their hands on any broken glass.

Sandwiches, tea and juice had been prepared for the workers, some of whom were as young as five-years-old, who were obviously enjoying the occasion and the opportunity to dress in the high-visibility uniforms.

Marie McGinnis from the Roe Valley Residents Association explained why events such as these were so important to the people living in the area. She said: “It gives the young people a great chance to get outdoors and enjoy themselves, all watched over by responsible adults.

“It is a great example to set and aside from actually improving the physical appearance and cleanliness of this and the surrounding estates, it lets some of the older people who maybe have the perception that the children in this area are only interested in mischief and causing trouble the chance to see the young people doing something good for the whole community.

“It also gives some of the older children an opportunity to set a good example to the really young children by showing them that you can do something good for the whole area.”

She added: “There are so many negative perceptions of young people at the minute and when people see so many of them out and about and working hard to clean the place up, that really changes the way some people think about the children. They are a great bunch of young people here and the work they are putting in to help the area shows you how great they really are.”

The Roe Valley Residents Association have a busy programme of events for young people in the area, including a Youth Intervention initiative under the title of ‘Off the Streets’ due to begin this month.