Founded in 1981, the Ballymun Youth Action Project (BYAP) is a community-based response to drug and alcohol misuse. It works with individuals, supports families and communities, and builds capacity through training and research.  At its seminar on austerity, described in a separate item in this issue of Drugnet Ireland, BYAP invited Róisín Shortall TD, former Minister of State with responsibility for Drugs, to launch its annual report for 2012 and its strategic plan for 2013–2015.¹

In 2012 BYAP provided services to well over 1,000 people, as the following selection from the annual report shows.

BYAP also collaborated with other local groups in the delivery of services, including the Ballymun Educational Support Team (BEST), the Ballymun Regional Youth Resource (BRYR), Youthreach Ballymun, and the Community and Family Training Agency (CAFTA).

In 2012 BYAP lost its funding from the City of Dublin Youth Services Board (CDYSB),² which opted to redirect funds to ‘mainstream youth services’, and had to make two staff members redundant and reduce the working hours of 10 others as a direct result of cutbacks. However, BYAP continued to evolve to meet local needs, becoming part of the Community Detox Pilot Programme, participating in the Network for Assisting Children and Young People (NACYP), and creating a new position of ‘infant parent support worker’, which is funded by the Ballymun LDTF.  The aim of this new role is to meet the needs of children and parents where there are issues related to problem drug and/or alcohol use in the infant stages of the child’s life. Finally, in 2012 BYAP began using the eCASS (electronic Consolidated Automated Support System) data system and reported that it became much easier to monitor and report on work done. It plans to develop eCASS further in the coming years, to maximise effectiveness of interventions and capture outcomes.                 

In its strategic plan for 2013–2015, BYAP sets out its way of working. Its approach is rooted in an ethos of valuing individuality and the capacity of individuals, families and communities. It commits to:

• respecting where people have come from, where they are at now, and where they see they could be;
• supporting the possibility of change; and
• addressing where necessary the bigger issues that are presented by the many cross-cutting systems within which each individual has to make their way in life, including their family, the education system, the justice system, and the health system.

These values and commitments are reflected in the three strategic objectives and actions that BYAP has set for the next three years, which are summarised in the following table.

 ____________

1. Ballymun Youth Action Project (2013) Annual report 2012. Dublin: The Ballymun Youth Action Project Ltd, and Ballymun Youth Action Project (2013) Strategic plan 2013–2015. Dublin: The Ballymun Youth Action Project Ltd. www.drugsandalcohol.ie/20081

1 The CDYSB is the youth development agency of the City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB), formerly the City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee.