Thank you for your kind invitation here today. It is a great pleasure for me to be with you in Sean McDermot Street to launch the new web-site for Lourdes Youth and Community Services.
You are providing a great service here in a community that has had its share of troubles over the years.
While it is hard sometimes to define 'community', it is easy to recognise the problems that arise when there is no community support or when community spirit is undermined by crime or unemployment. All of you here will agree with me that a vibrant sense of community contributes immensely to the quality of life of the people who live within it.
I know that Lourdes Youth and Community Service came into being in 1984 as part of a general community mobilisation which sought to tackle the decline being experienced in inner city Dublin at that time.
Since then, LYCS has opened up opportunities to many people in this area through its integrated education, training, recreation and development projects. These opportunities have allowed local people to become involved in their own development as well as that of their community. The success of your work has clearly demonstrated the truth of your philosophy that personal development is inextricably linked to community development.
Each of your four key programmes addresses the needs of a range of people in your community. The Community Training Centre, which is funded by FÁS, has the capacity for 40 early school leavers to gain certified training in FETAC Foundation and Level 1 and Junior Cert in a range of modules. Under the Adult Education Programme, informal training and education is provided for over 110 women and men each week, all who have little or no history of formal education. In addition, your youth programme offers invaluable afternoon, evenings and weekend programmes for young people as well as an outreach advocacy service.
Of course, the availability of childcare is a critical support for those who need to avail of the programmes which are on offer here and the LYCS Creche provides 28 vital places for children up to 5 years old.
Now, the details of the work that you do, your mission and your achievements are available for all to see on your new web-site. This is a colourful and well-designed resource for the staff and participants here at the LYCS as well as the wider community. It is an ideal way for you to promote your good work and also allows local people to demonstrate their involvement with the Centre.
I know that you are deeply indebted to Kainos, the IT company who developed the website for free. This venture provides us with an excellent example of the voluntary sector working in partnership with the public sector.
Kainos is also a great example of a successful cross-border company with bases in Dublin and Belfast operating in the IT consulting and systems integration business. With a total staff of 170, Kainos specialises in enterprise content management, amongst other things, and has a wide range of clients, including FÁS.
When something is given for free, I know that people often do not expect a huge amount of effort to be put into it. In this case, that is clearly not true. And you do not just have to take my word for it. The fact that the new LYCS web-site was short-listed for one of this year’s prestigious Golden Spider Internet awards is evidence enough.
Many congratulations are due to Kainos for putting so much into this project and for producing such a fine end product.
I am reliably informed that their investment in this web-site can, in total, be estimated at somewhere in the region of €70,000. This is an outstanding example of what can be achieved through corporate citizenship and I hope that other companies will follow in their footsteps by engaging and working more with the community.
I am sure that LYCS will put this web-site to good use. In the future, I know that Lourdes Youth and Community Services are looking to develop a new premises to fully meet their needs and that discussions are ongoing with FÁS to this end. I was glad to have an opportunity to hear more about this during my meeting with the Board of Management.
It only remains for me to congratulate again everybody who has been involved with the development of the new web-site. I wish you every success for the future.
Thank You.
ENDS