Some families have said they will not return to the Belfast City Mission church following the move
The rear of the Belfast City Mission Hall in Ballybeen advertising Girls and Boys Brigader in 2022
A number of families in Dundonald have expressed their disappointment after Girls and Boys Brigade has been stopped at a Ballybeen church after 50 years.
The Belfast City Mission has said that Girls and Boys Brigade will no longer take place at the Mission Hall on Rosneath Gardens as it has decided to restructure its youth services. However the decision has upset local families whose children attended the organisation there with claims that some have now left the Mission church as a result.
Andrea Keating who had grandchildren who attended the brigades told Belfast Live the decision has caused a lot of upset among children and parents and are not happy with how the BCM has made it.
She said: “For 50 years there has been Girls and Boys Brigade at the Mission Hall and the news that it will now be cancelled has caused a lot of upset of families here. My grandchildren just can’t understand why they won’t be going back to it in September and their parents have said they won’t be going to anything else the church is doing either.
“Parents have asked for an explanation from the Mission and all we have been told is that they are changing the youth services, but only in Ballybeen.
“Some families have said they won’t be returning to the church because of it all and it is really having an impact in the community.”
Belfast City Mission told Belfast Live that the move has been made as part of a restructure of its youth services in the local area which it hopes will be able to engage more people.
It has said there are also a number of other Boys and Girls Brigade groups in the Ballybeen area that the children are able to attend if they wish.
Wilie Logan of Belfast City Mission said: “From time to time, right across mostly all organisations, they restructure and they change things, and we were looking at that part of Belfast and the GB and BB company, and going forward, they just thought that the youth work would be better suited in a different format.
“What we did before we took this decision, obviously, was we looked at, was there other GB and BB companies in Ballybeen, and there is so if children wanted to transfer to them, there’s still that provision.
“But we also have new children’s work within the hall, so the children are very welcome to come to that, similar organisations.”
He continued: “It is disappointing because they did great work down there for a lot of years, but sometimes you have to go in a different direction, and some people accept it and some people, you know, won’t, but there was nothing, nothing untoward whatsoever, and we’re very thankful for the work that was done by the leaders.”
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