The 174 Trust

It has been so long since I last post that I have decided to stop saying when I will put up another post because I don't always know when I will have the time. In this post I am going to tell you about one of my jobs here in Belfast. The 174, which is just down the street from our house on Thorndale Ave, is a cross-community center. Their building is an old church. The offices of the Trust are in the old manse and the classrooms have been turned into a preschool and an afterschool center. They also house various other organizations which rent space. These other organizations all have a positive influence on the community around here. I can't remember all of them. There is a boxing club for youths and offices for a homeless organization. I help out three organizations there.

My main responsiblity is two football (remember that means soccer) clubs. We play indoor football in the Trust's hall monday tuesday and thursday afternoons and monday nights we take the older boys 14-22 to play 5 a side outdoor football. Some tuesday nights we take the younger boys out for swimming or outdoor football. We don't take the younger boys out as much because we have to get parental permission. I guess you would say these are "at risk youth" but I don't really like that term. They are kids from the neighborhood around the Trust. The neighborhood is called New Lodge and is predominantly Catholic. I would use the term "rough and tumble" to describe these boys. They are pretty hard to manage sometimes but in general they are starting to listen to me because they know I can take the ball away and send them home if they muck about. They are starting to not look at me with utter disgust all the time which is a big step. My football skills are also improving quite a bit so that helps too.

I also work at the afterschool program twice a week. They call it the afterschools here. I go in twice a week and work for a couple hours so that the employees have time to take breaks and plan other things without having to deal with the kids. We play games and run about and color and do homework. Its pretty fun. The kids are good and very cute. I played battleship with a 4 year old girl named shauna (pronounced show- na, Ive been corrected several times) who doesn't entirely know her alphabet yet. She would guess things like "A-E" to which I would say, "Shauna you have to pick a letter and a number." "ok A um B"

My other job is working with the youth and junior PHAB clubs. PHAB which actually just changed its name to FACE is an organization that hosts outings and get togethers for children with all sorts of different special needs as well as there siblings. It is very fun and the kids are so joyful it is very nice to go there once a week. One of the most eye opening things I have done here is drive with Pat, the facilities manager at the Trust, to drop the kids after the meetings. We drop them off in some of the rougher neighborhoods as night falls. I have seen some very interesting things and been pretty scared a few times. But I am glad I have seen these things. They have stretched me so that I can learn more. These kids live in situations that are way intense yet when the come play with us they are always so happy. it gives me hope

Hopefully I will post some pictures of the Trust and Fortwilliam & Macrory Chruch the other place I work. Cheers till then

Alex