Teen Summer Scheme 2021

Lakeland Community Care has been buzzing this week with the return of the “Teen Summer Scheme”. Students aged 11-16 were involved in the scheme across two venues, Derrygonnelly Community Centre and Belcoo Healthy Living Centre with 100 participants.

LCC were given the opportunity to run this program, supported by the Education Authority, and by all accounts it was a roaring success. Having experience running the program, led by Adrian McGurn, during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, we decided to target the older age group of teenagers in our local area so they were given an outlet to enjoy fun activities over the summer period.

Adrian remarked that “it was fantastic to see the kids out and about enjoying their peers company in a relaxed and fun environment. We had a range of students from different age groups and backgrounds and it was a pleasure to see them integrate”.

The week of fun and activities included sports (i.e. rounders, football, dodgeball), art classes, nutritionist talks and mental health and wellbeing talks. There were also day trips for all 100 participants to Gortatole (watersports, archery & wall climbing) and Cladagh Glen (team building and forest walk).

Chief Executive Officer Pat McGurn commented that “the young people of West Fermanagh required some extra support given the 4 month disruption from school (January - April). We as a company feel that this Teen Summer Scheme benefited a generation of people who needed it most”. It is hoped that the opportunity to meet and socialise/play with their own age group, outside of the school setting, will provide huge benefits both for physical and mental health.

We had a great group of leaders who helped out across the week to facilitate the enjoyment of all participants. A massive thanks goes to our leaders Ciara, Garvan, Niall, Tamara, Stephen McGullion, Kira, Frances and Stephen McGurn for facilitating the scheme which was very well received from parents and students.