A Co Tyrone community group has raised more than £60,000 to build a new sensory room to aid those with disabilities in the area.
The Tobin Centre in Moortown hosted a charity jailbreak event in Crumlin Road jail last weekend, with 30 prisoners spending the night in prison to raise funds for the facility.
The community centre was built on the site of the former St Malachy’s GAA club 10 years ago, and provides services for young people in the area and further afield.
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Loretta Daly, programme manager of The Base at the Tobin Centre, said she was overwhelmed by the response from the local community along the loughshore, who had rallied around the fundraiser.
“The response from everyone was just unbelievable,” Loretta told MyTyrone.
“We were just overwhelmed with the level of support, the number of people who came out to every single event that we did just blew us away.
“There’s so much kindness and generosity out there and it has just been remarkable to see.”
With the community centre celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Loretta added it was the next stage in the group’s drive to ensure young people in the local area have the services they need.
“The Tobin Centre was established ten years ago after the local GAA club relocated and sold the land for a new housing development.
“A group of people from the community got together to buy the pavilion of the old pitch so that it was maintained for community use. It was a lot of work to develop to what it is today.
“We had a lot of people who came to us and said that we were doing great work within the community, but my child has additional needs and they can’t use any of your services.
“That gained a bit of momentum and we ended up doing a sensory Saturday once a month, and that led to more than 40 families coming to us for that.
“It’s all about establishing friendships and developing social skills, and them coming to feel safe at the centre and be independent of their parents or carers.”
Loretta says the new facilities will go a long way towards helping many children and young people feel comfortable coming to use the community centre.
“Not only will the sensory room enable children to participate in activities, but it will also be available for local families to hire.
“Our funding is due to end next year so that will provide much needed revenue for the sustainability of the Tobin Centre.
“The level of support that we have had is phenomenal. Our programme not only serves our local area here but across Mid Ulster as well.
“It shows that there is a severe lack of support for families of those with additional needs when people are prepared to travel more than 30 miles to us.
“There are very few people that don’t know somebody within their family circle that has additional support needs, and the amount of people that were willing to support us with this shows that.”
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