Young people mark completion of peace project with special event

Young people from Derry joined together recently to celebrate their success after completing a cross-border peace project.

Third Space, now in its second year, aims to transform the lives of over 800 young people through a personalised self-development and training programme.

For the past 26 weeks, young people from across the North West area have been taking part in a range of activities including Shared Reading, Digital storytelling, community engagement as well as outdoor pursuits. As part of the programme, participants have also gained an OCN qualification. The project is being delivered by Verbal, an organisation which supports the spoken and written word in partnership with youth social justice charity, Extern. This project is supported by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme. It will operate across Northern Ireland, Cavan and Donegal until 2021 managed by the Special EU programmes Body (SEUPB).

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A special celebration event was held in the Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre in Limavady recently to mark the young people’s achievements.

As part of the programme, young people have also had the opportunity to create their own digital story focussing on issues that are important to them. As well as hearing first-hand from the young people about their experience, the celebration event was also used as an opportunity to showcase some of their digital stories.

Derry City men, Martin McDonagh and Oisin O’Donnell created a digital story during their time with Third Space. They decided to use their video as a way of highlighting how important it is for men to ‘open up’ and talk about issues affecting mental health. Friends, Robyn McNerlin, Lauren Brolly and Lauren Lavelle, from the Limavady area decided to focus their digital story around the issues of judgement.