The First Step Drop-In Centre

Situated on the busy York Road, The First Step Drop-in Centre is a hub of activity irrespective of age.  Around the years 1983/84 a group of people from Jennymount Methodist Church began a Christian outreach aimed at some of our more disaffected young people from around the neighbouring area of lower North Belfast. The aim was very simple, just to befriend and get a better understanding of the young people and to offer them an alternative to their present way of life. As the group ‘patrolled’ the local parks, derelict buildings and ‘hang-outs’ where many of these young people gathered, meeting and talking with them, it soon became apparent there was a great need to provide a place where the teenagers could meet in warmth and safety.

It wasn’t until May 1993 that the minister and leaders of Jennymount Methodist Church caught the vision to provide a Drop-In Centre. 116 York  Road was purchased and The First Step Drop-in Centre was born. Billy Greer, one of the original outreach team was appointed by Jennymount to lead this new initiative. Joined by his wife Marie they embarked on a mission to share the grace and mercy of God through the work of the Centre. Over the years the work has grown and in 1996 the Centre was extended to double its size to facilitate the expanding work. To visit the Centre’s website click here

As an integral part of the ministry of Jennymount Methodist Church the Centre is very much church in community. Our motivation for who and what we are as church is mission. Jennymount values its place in the urban regeneration area of Lower North Belfast and is very aware of the increasing needs an inner-city community presents. Thankfully things are changing; there is increased optimism as plans are unveiled for further regeneration. People are beginning to re-locate back into the community. There is a buzz about the place as government departments have been given much needed resources to build more much needed social housing. There is mounting buoyancy in the community as new houses are occupied by new incoming residents. There is a sense that God is indeed doing a new thing among us.

That said, society, family dynamics and values are changing at a ferocious rate and with these changes come many and diverse challenges. What was once a rare event has now become the norm. We are very aware of the increased needs in an ever increasing teenage parenting and single parenting culture. Families need support. To try and meet these needs and support families relevantly we are currently investigating with professional bodies the possibility of providing a purpose built Family Centre which would build upon the already valued work of First Step.

Community Café

Our café is a great place to meet up with old friends or make new friends. Local business people use it to meet colleagues and enjoy the coffee and the delicious scones. It is open 6 days a week from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm and serves everything from a cup of tea and scone to a full meal. The café provides subsidised lunches for local pensioners as well as providing the finance for the day to day running of the Youth Centre and salary costs for 7 members of staff. We pride ourselves in our home baking and cooking and all our recipies are guaranteed to please the palate.

Youth Work

The Youth Centre has been working with young people in Lower North Belfast for thirteen years and has been at the forefront of youth service provision in this area. Our ethos and vision is to help young men and young women realise their full potential as human beings. We do this against the backdrop of multiple deprivation. The Centre has two youth workers: Davy, who has overall responsibility for our youth work is full-time and heads up the Youth Centre and Lynne who is part-time heads up the young women’s group. There are opportunities for more focussed single gender groups as well as mixed groups. This year the Youth Centre has been running and developing quite a number of personal improvement groups with the young people of the Duncairn area. These have included non-formal education groups, art projects, testing values and beliefs, film and media projects and partnership building. We have also had an Awards ceremony at which we gave around 40 different young people 132 certificates for participation in 12 different projects.

Two projects have been particularly successful. Our ‘About Turn Initiative’ dealt with subjects such as development, identity, conflict resolution, drug awareness and discrimination. This covered a period of 16 weeks and had up to 15 participants (13- 16 year olds).

The other programme was a partnership with the Police Service, Include Youth (Young Voices project) and The First Step (‘Building Bridges’ group, 16- 18 year olds). As you can imagine relations between the police and young people are quite tense. The young people had only negative views of police officers and all contact was on a ‘police come, we run’ basis. This initiative, through discussion groups, made it possible for members to meet representatives of the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman’s office and finally they had a face to face meeting with local officers.

The Centre is open every afternoon, offering help with homework projects or providing space for a bit of relaxation playing pool or video games or simply a chat. We have 6 computers with internet access in our computer suite that the young people have access to. On Monday and Tuesday evenings the Centre is open for more programme based activities. On Friday evening the Centre is open on  a more informal basis giving the young people somewhere to meet, play pool and speak to leaders who are always on hand, willing to listen, give advice or direct to professional help where needed.