Chair’s report – AMG 30[th] August 2023.
J O’Neill welcomed everyone to BCS 10th AGM meeting which covered the period of May 2022 until August 2023. We would like you to join us in welcoming a new Project Co-ordinator, Kerrie Hannigan who is covering C McGonigle’s maternity leave. Caoimhe is due to return in February 2024. The committee and members would like to thank Colleen Moran, who left BCS in 2022 for all her hard work in both groups over the last few years. Colleen was instrumental in the continued success of the groups for which we are all very grateful.
We are happy to announce that 2022-23 was another successful year and that BCS exceeded their exceptions and the number and diversity of our clients and users continues to grow. During the year we continued to build the profile of the Youth Club and Women’s Group and have delivered a wide range of successful programmes to both groups. Our dedicated and experienced team continue to support both groups and engage with the community as a whole.
The focus for our young people in the community was to help them grow and develop, experience new adventures, and help build their confidence for future life experiences. Last year we included more training sessions for the Youth which allowed them to receive certificates for First Aid and Food Hygiene. We plan to continue with this and implement a learning and development portfolio for each young person to record their learning experiences. The young person shall receive this portfolio at the end of their time with BCS Youth Club. The Youth Members were also able to avail of several activities such as Boxing, Zumba, Tai Chi, Outdoors Sports, Cookery and Art Classes, away trips to Water Parks and Ice Skating to name but a few.
Our Connecting Rural Women group is expanding, and our weekly nature walks continue to be very popular. We continue to focus on health and well-being, and ran several information sessions on Bowel Cancel, Cervical Cancer and Pink Ladies sessions as part on an on-going drive towards health awareness. We ran Keep-fit sessions, Dance classes, Chair Yoga, Meditation and Cookery sessions, all of which were well attended. There is an exciting programme planned for the year ahead.
We were fortunate to secure some funding last year to continue to run both groups with the largest received from the Education Authority for a period of three years. This funding was part of a joint initiative with Glor and we have entered into a partnership with their youth group and now deliver two youth club sessions each week with appropriately 140 members. We plan to run a further youth session on Saturdays in Glor and the older members will service their own Café. We would encourage all parents to drop in for a coffee and cake. Funding is always an on-going battle therefore we have to charge nominal fees for programmes to help subsidise our on-going work.
Finally, we wish to thank and acknowledge all our funders, stakeholders and community support workers, particularly Catherine Farrimond who is the Community Development Officer from Causeway Coast and Glens for her continued support and guidance. We wish to thank the Education Authority for the opportunity to delivery our joint programme with Glor over the next three years which was our big win this year. Details of all our funders for this period is attached.
The success of BCS depends on the support of the Trustees, our Voluntary workers and our Project Co-ordinator. I wish to express our thanks to the entire team for your continued support, many of whom go well beyond what is required of them to ensure that the local community needs are met. Without your continued support and many long hours, we would be unable to offer the much-needed programme of events. We also wish to thank our members who continue to use our services and turn up for each and every event which is testimony to our programme planning. We hope you continue to enjoy what we have planned for you in the forthcoming year, and we look forward to another successfully, happy and healthy year.
BCS Chair – Jackie O’Neill