‘Our project is part of the ups and downs of the community’

IT’S the bridge for people to the drug and alcohol support services they need. But with its focus on prevention, it also offers education, support and alternatives to teenagers.

This week, a fiercely contested soccer tournament will kick off as part of the Knocknaheeny Hollyhill Drug and Alcohol Project’s (KHDA) annual nine-week summer programme.

“The programme is just one of several diversionary projects run by the project to give kids an alternative,” project manager Tony Fitzgerald said.

He has been working in the community since the late 1970s.

“Any death is a tragedy, especially in a tight-knit community. Our project is part of the ups and downs of the community and we are there to support,” he said.

“We may not be the solution but we are the local contact. We are part of the process of helping people solve their problems.”

The KHDA project was set up in August 1998 following years of lobbying after the area became, in 1994, one of the first in Ireland, along with Ronanstown in Dublin and Moyross in Limerick, to get a garda youth diversion project.

The KHDA is funded through the Department of Justice via the Cork Local Drugs Taskforce and National Drugs Strategy Team.

It is managed by a local voluntary committee, including local representatives, gardaí and the Probation and Welfare Service.

It expanded over the years and today, it is widely regarded as a national model for such projects.

Its full-time drug coordinator, Celine Hurley, works with young people aged 13 to 22 telling them about the effects of drug misuse and encouraging them to engage in other activities.

She delivers drug awareness workshops, and offers confidential support and advice to parents around drug and alcohol issues.

A community addiction counsellor from Arbour House is based in the youth centre on a weekly basis.

Its youth cafe for 15 to 18-year-olds is open on Monday and Tuesday nights.

Mr Fitzgerald said it is difficult to quantify the success of the project. But people have come to us years later and said without it, they don’t know what would have happened to them.

“When we were starting our campaign in the early ’90s, the Department of Finance view was that funding should be for prisons and the recruitment of more gardaí,” he said.

“We broke new ground to get the department to invest in prevention. Now there’s about 200 similar projects nationally.”

* Contact: Project Coordinator: Celine Hurley, Knocknaheeny Hollyhill Youth Project. Hollyhill Shopping Centre, Cork. Tel: [phone]. Mobile: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]