News - Summer Splash 2009

The scheme is being rolled out across 26 council areas and Craigavon was chosen to launch the programmes regionally when Paul Goggins, the Minister for Criminal Justice joined the Mayor of Craigavon, Councillor Meta Crozier and the Chair of the CCSP, Councillor Mairead O’Dowd to be entertained by a dance demonstration. Minister Goggins also joined in with the young people and played some beach volleyball.

Craigavon Community Safety Partnership (CCSP) has once again been successful in gaining Summer Splash funding and have secured £8,400 for this summer. There are two programmes within Craigavon this year – a Sports Programme and an Arts Programme.

The eight week Sports Programme commencedon 7 July 2009 with beach volleyball and is aimed at 20 young people who have been identified by various organisations as being involved or potentially being involved in anti-social behaviour. The remainder of the activities include cross-fit training, tennis, archery, trampolining, bowling, judo, mountain biking, snow tubing, banana boating and kayaking. The programme will also include a day of litter picking in and around the Craigavon Lakes and conclude with an evening of go-karting.

The Arts Programme commenced on 20 July 2009 for six weeks with costume trash fashion and dance workshops including hiphop, salsa and jive. These groups will continue through to the Parklife Festival in September and the Halloween event in October. The dance workshops include intergenerational work as older people are participating at these six introductory sessions. As graffiti is a major problem within the Borough, there will also be several days and evenings of graffiti art and spray painting in all three areas – Portadown, Brownlow and Lurgan. Young people who are known to ‘tag’ have been identified to be included in this programme to prevent future graffiti of this nature. There will also be a graffiti jam event which will include break dancing and spraying on temporary boards.