Youngsters enjoy Lottery windfall

The good news marks a new milestone for the programme which has now handed out over 1.45m to 690 projects working with around 34,000 children and young people across Northern Ireland.

The Big Deal Small Grants Programme, administered by Youthnet, was set up in 2006 and has been funded to the tune of 1.5 million by the Big Lottery Fund.

The North Coast Autism Youth Club received 2,500 towards leisure activities for young people with autism and their families, young people like Conor Raffery from Coleraine.

“Following the success of a pilot project we did we’ve been fortunate enough to secure this funding to deliver more activities for our members,” said Conor’s mum, Shevaun.

“What we - and other families with children who have autism - find is that there is a void for these young people once they leave school – they just seem to drop out of the system. Until then there seems to be a support framework of sorts in place but after that you can feel very much on your own.

“Conor has just turned 20 and now we’re realising just what a vacuum there is and how difficult it is for him to interact with other young ones his own age.

“It can be difficult for young people with autism to find work too and the result is they’re stuck at home with a lot of time on their hands. It’s hard for them and for their families. The biggest challenge facing young people like Conor is isolation and that brings with it all kinds of associated problems.

“And because of their challenges it’s not as easy as simply taking them to an existing youth club as they could feel overwhelmed by such a situation, not to mention the fact that the other young people would have to understand about autism.”

Currently about 20 members, aged five to 25, meet in the premises of a youth club in Portrush, though members – and their families - come from Ballymoney and Coleraine too.

“The club also provides a chance for families to socialise together as this can be another barrier – and parents get the chance, while the young people are occupied, to have a chat and a cup of tea,” said Shevaun.

“Last year we ran a sort of pilot project involving drama lessons and that proved so successful we wanted to organise something more regular. But it’s the grant from The Big Deal which has made the youth club possible.

“Because we use the premises of an existing youth club we’re fortunate enough to also be able to use their equipment – pool tables and computers – but this funding means we can provide activities tailored specifically for our young people.

“We asked them what other activities they’d like to try and one of the most popular was photography so we’re planning a course on that now too.”