‘Kids as young as 10 dabbling with alcohol or drugs’

That was the startling revelation made by Anne Henry, manager of The Hope Centre, last week as she welcomed news from the Big Lottery Fund of a major £320,480 grant for the Ballymena Family & Addicts Support Group.

The project, which is based at the Centre on Broughshane Street, aims to improve the lives of young people and their families dealing with addiction and received the funding award from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching out.

A Empowering Young People programme, Reaching Out supports young people most at risk in Northern Ireland, including those who have been disengaged from education, involved in crime or in care.

The £320,480 funding will be used to run a programme providing support for young people whose lives have been affected by drug and alcohol addiction.

“When I started work with the organisation, we were seeing young people dabbling with alcohol or drugs from about 14. Today we’re seeing children as young as 10 – primary school children,” said Manager, Anne.

“Statistics show that many young people with addictions also have parents with an addiction. Out of 190 young people registered with us, 116 have parents dealing with drug or alcohol addiction, so it’s clear young people are copying the choices taken by family members”.

As well as offering help, advice and a range of activities and rehabilitation support services for the young people, the project will offer support for their family members, many of whom are also dealing with addiction.

Project workers will also visit local schools to educate young people about the dangers of addiction and they are planning to run health events and an awareness day to help the local community understand the impact of drug and alcohol misuse.

Anne said: “We are going to run after-school and evening projects for young people aged from eight up to 20, offering counselling and advice, educating them about the dangers of drug and alcohol and giving them an alternative to hanging about on street corners.”

She continued: “We can educate young people about addiction, but if they are going home to family members who are drinking and taking drugs then they are more likely to continue to do it too.

“Parents will get the chance to take part in one-to-one counselling and education sessions, as well as parenting and bonding classes and family trips. Addiction can lead to the loss of trust between parents and their children, so we are going to help rebuild that and support parents to tackle their own addictions.

“This project will improve young people’s health, fitness and self-esteem, helping to rebuild family relationships and offering them stability and trust, while also educating the wider community about addiction so people have a better understanding about it and can make informed choices,” said Anne.

Frank Hewitt, Big Lottery Fund NI Chair, said: “I am delighted that we are announcing these grants awarded through our £20 million Empowering Young People programme to support the most vulnerable and isolated young people in our society.”

He said that organisations in Northern Ireland can apply now for grants of up to £500,000 to run projects “that will help this group of young people transform their lives through activities such as training and employment schemes, one-to-one crisis support, mentoring programmes and street outreach work.”