Brilliant Bud Club making Derry more inclusive for people with disabilities
Mayor Lilian Barr’s chosen charity for her year is the Bud Club, a youth group for people with disabilities with an inspiring story that pushes Derry to be more inclusive.
The BUD Club is a safe, engaging and educational space for young people with disabilities. The Juniors club supports children from 11 to 14 creating a sense of community these children and teenagers won't get elsewhere.
BUD Club gives them a space to be who they are, socialise and have fun. But it does more than that, it’s developing their skills for adulthood, preparing them for the future.
From the ages of 15 to 25 the Seniors Club continues to help develop personal skills and create social opportunities for the young adults with disabilities.
The BUD Club started up a decade ago, and to learn about its humble beginnings we spoke with the man who started it, Gavin Melly.
Gavin has been committed to the club for 10 and a half years. He told the Journal how it all started: “As a young person I used to go to a lot of youth clubs and enjoyed going to youth clubs. I then started helping out and volunteering in my own local youth clubs.”
Gavin described that he got a job with The PlayTrail, with the goal of making it more inclusive, particularly for young people with disabilities. So he asked young people with disabilities what they would like.
“The young people came back with two things,” he said. “One thing they wanted to do was something with people their own age. Historically, a lot of people with disabilities spend a lot of time with carers and adults, they wanted to make friends their same age. Secondly, they wanted to do something on a Friday night. When asked why they said, ‘because on a Friday night their brothers and sisters did something with their friends’.”
Gavin explained that he had nothing but a football for the first night of BUD Club, saying: "On the first night 13 people showed up and we played 20 different games with the ball. I can't play football, but as a youth worker I had to engage young people who have quite a diverse range of disabilities. That’s where BUD Club came from, the voices of young people wanting to do something.”
Since its humble beginnings BUD Club has grown, he explained: “As of today BUD Club is the largest youth provision in Northern Ireland for children and young people with disabilities. We have 306 registered members right across the city and district attending eight sessions a week.”
From just Gavin starting alone there is now 16 members of staff.
He continued: “It's about providing young people with disabilities social opportunities to come together, meet friends, and develop a sense of belonging in a safe environment. But also about targeted programmes, enhancing their skills around topics they need support in if that's about physical health, mental health, internet safety. Our role is to provide them with knowledge and skills to make informed decisions in life.”
Gavin believes that Derry has over the years become a more inclusive city for people with disabilities saying. “I think personally in this city we have come a long way, I think more people have an awareness. I'll be honest, about 30 years ago you probably wouldn't have heard of autism. 15 years ago I had a friend who’s child was going through a diagnosis and I was very unaware of what that meant, how that played at home and what that meant for that child. The city is much better at understanding and acceptance.”
He continued: “As the BUD Club we have been invited to every part of the city, people want to work with us and they love to see us come. It's about getting our young people out into communities. Were having our 10th birthday in the City Hotel.”
Now the club is Mayor Lilian Barr’s chosen charity for the year, Gavin explained how that came about: “Some of the parents arranged to meet the new Mayor, to discuss access and support for children with disabilities. Two of the parents shared with the Mayor that their lifeline is BUD Club, their child thrives in BUD Club and they shared this.”
From the Mayor’s discussion with parents she arranged to have a chat with Gavin. “I'll be honest it wasn't a hard sell, the Mayor was very keen,” said Gavin.
Continuing, Gavin said: “For the next year we will be working with the Mayor to devise fundraising activities which will then generate income for the BUD Club to do more stuff. And when we get that income next year, It will be down to the young people what to do with it. If you look around this room everything in here was picked by a young person. They came to IKEA with me to pick out the furniture, they came with me to Smyths to pick board games; when they want new PlayStation games they tell me what they want.”
Finishing Gavin said: “The Mayor had decided that this year she wanted to raise money for children and young people with disabilities and try to promote inclusion more.
“Outside of a lot of our young people's lives, their community is the BUD Club, their community is when they come here. We want to expand that, provide our young people with the opportunities to become active citizens in the city.
“And now hopefully over the next year working with the Mayor we will be able to do that. To provide a lot more opportunities for children and young people with disabilities.”