Report of a Youth Inspection - Mountcollyer Youth Centre, Belfast
March 2026
1. Introduction
A. Background information
Mountcollyer Youth Centre (the centre) is a statutory, full-time youth provision situated within the Mountcollyer, Tigers Bay and Limestone communities in North Belfast. The centre received capital investment four years ago and the accommodation comprises state-of-the-art groupwork rooms, a resource library, media room, dance studio, an indoor sports hall, and a large multi-purpose room, along with barista and hairdressing facilities.
For the 2025/26 year, the centre has 160 registered young people aged 6 to 18, an increase of 20 percent over the last four years; the majority of members are within the Priorities for Youth Policy priority age bands. The provision includes open access, structured group work and targeted programmes designed to address the identified needs and interests of the young people over five nights per week, 46 weeks of the year.
The centre is managed by the Education Authority (EA) as part of its North and East Belfast Youth Team. The staffing comprises one full-time leader-in-charge and eleven part-time youth workers, five of whom are professionally qualified. The staff team have completed the EA-mandated training requirements alongside practice‑based workshops, and some have completed OCN Level 2 and Level 3 youth work qualifications and professional youth work degrees.
The centre benefits from a wide range of effective partnerships across community, statutory and sports sectors, including local schools and youth service providers. These collaborative relationships enhance the quality and breadth of provision, support inclusion and good relations, strengthen community cohesion, and improve progression opportunities for young people.
B. Views of young people, parents and staff
Focus groups and discussions were held with young people, parents and staff during the inspection and the responses, where relevant, are referenced within the main body of the report.
C. The process of inspection
The Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) worked alongside the centre to consider how well the provision:
- has identified and articulates its vision;
- prioritises actions to achieve the vision;
- overcomes the main challenges it faces;
- monitors and reviews progression to identify, celebrate and embed success; and
- grows and develops an inclusive community of learning.
2. Main report
A. Setting the vision
The centre’s clearly established and ambitious vision is firmly rooted in the needs, aspirations and contexts of the young people it serves. The vision, ‘Empowering and supporting every young person to improve their life opportunities by realising their full potential’ effectively underpins the planning and delivery of responsive and inclusive youth work provision. The vision is realised through the centre’s focus on progression pathways and its consistent emphasis on promoting confidence, resilience and personal growth.
The vision is effectively realised through strong leadership that ensures clear alignment between strategic priorities, programme planning and staff professional development. This coherent approach creates a purposeful environment where young people are consistently encouraged and supported. As a result, the centre enables young people to achieve, grow in confidence and participate fully within their community.
There is a strong commitment to promoting inclusion and equity; ensuring that young people in North Belfast have access to trauma-informed and strengths-based youth work. The centre has a comprehensive and continuous cycle of monitoring, evaluation and review to ensure high‑quality youth work practice and improved outcomes for young people. Quality assurance includes scheduled monitoring, moderation and review activities which focus on assessing the consistency, quality and impact of the youth work practice. There are regular staff reflective practice meetings where evaluations are based on the needs and interests of the young people and new ideas are considered.
B. Implementing and improving to achieve the vision
Staff share a strong belief in the young people’s potential, captured in the motto ‘Believing in YOUth’. This shared ethos is clearly evident in the high-quality relationships, high expectations and nurturing approaches observed across the provision. Young people are actively involved in shaping the programme, and sessions are well planned, engaging and purposeful, promoting participation, belonging and emotional well-being. During focus groups, the young people explained that they learn about forming friendships and the importance of kindness, which is reflected in their interactions. They reported that the centre provides a safe and accepting space where they feel valued for who they are and know who to talk to if they have any issues or problems. Parents highlighted the supportive relationships with staff and the positive impact of their children’s participation in youth work activities, including increased confidence, independence and the development of lasting friendships.
The youth work methodology is clearly demonstrated in the relationship‑centred environment valued by the young people, reflecting the positive, non-formal and youth‑centred approaches embedded in practice; one young person described their experience as “life changing”. Check-ins support inclusion by offering complementary ways for young people to express themselves, ensuring everyone can participate equally. There is a strong focus on preparing the young people for life and work through targeted support, including interview skills, driving test preparation and assistance with preparing and completing CVs and job applications.
The needs-led youth work curriculum is informed by ongoing consultation and evaluation. The prioritisation of early intervention is a strength, with the centre’s ‘Reach for the Stars’ junior programme well embedded and a ‘RISE’ initiative in development for seniors, which is focused on a curriculum theme chosen by the young people. A wide range of groupwork programmes is available, including positive mental and physical health and well-being, leadership development and social action through the EA Horizons programme. The centre has appropriately identified the need to further develop targeted work with young men to promote positive masculinity.
Preventative initiatives include gender-specific programmes, sexual health education delivered with Common Youth, and targeted work on drug and alcohol misuse. Young people also benefit from creative well-being and life-skills activities, such as budgeting for healthy meals, the ‘Take 5’* initiative, mindfulness journals and well‑being podcasts, alongside effective regional collaboration through the Facilitating Life and Resilience Education (FLARE) OK Café and FLARE Ambassador initiatives.
C. Building equity
Inclusion is central to the planning and delivery of practice; consistent messaging reinforces the shared expectation that all staff and young people will contribute to creating a welcoming and respectful environment for others.
A notable strength of the sessions observed is the way older members model the inclusive behaviours demonstrated by staff, actively supporting and involving younger members in their activities. The staff promote sustained engagement, support reintegration when challenges arise and, importantly, encourage shared reflection with the young people. The staff know the young people very well and where required, take timely and sensitive action to help young people re‑engage with their peers.
In response to identified need relating to mental health and emotional well-being, the centre staff planned strategically for, and established its OK Café. Working closely with the EA’s FLARE staff, the centre staff provide well-planned programmes to support young people to develop positive emotional health and build their resilience. Complementary and supportive ways for young people to express themselves at the start of each session enable the young people to share discreetly how they are feeling and inform the staff’s sensitive response to initiating conversations with individuals or in small groups. As a result, the young people are confident to talk openly about how they feel.
In order to provide accessible programmes for young people with a range of additional needs, the centre staff established two SENsational Quiet Hour sessions per week. Through the centre’s long-standing relationship with Cedar Lodge School, the school’s pupils benefit from active participation in inclusive youth work provision within the youth centre, supported by learning support staff from the school in those sessions. The planning for these sessions is responsive to the young people’s needs, preferences and interests. It reflects a key goal for the North Belfast Area Project: access for all. As a result, the programmes include a suitably wide range of artistic, practical, social and physical activities which promote all aspects of the young people’s well-being and personal development. Clear and ongoing communication with parents, including detailed, honest shared needs assessments help staff identify the young people who will benefit most from this centre-based provision.
The centre has established a strategic partnership with Diverse Youth Northern Ireland, whose staff come from different ethnic groups in order to forge sound working relationships to support intercultural learning. Based on a clear, shared understanding of the local community, this planned extension of the centre’s reach is an appropriate and important priority.
D. Embedding success
The centre evaluates the progress the learners make, it affirms individual achievements taking full account of their starting points and the outcomes they attain. The centre uses a strengths‑based approach that values both small and significant steps of progress which reflects the staff’s commitment to acknowledging and celebrating personal growth in all its forms.
The physical environment is used imaginatively and inclusively to celebrate the young people’s successes and participation and reinforcing a strong sense of pride in their achievements. Displays of photographs highlight the young people’s participation in a range of activities and their artwork is showcased prominently in the main activity rooms. This is complemented by the proactive, regular and timely use of social media to share the young people’s achievements with families, friends and a wider audience. The success of the young people’s movie, ‘Our Road’, made in conjunction with their peers at Holy Family youth centre was a highlight for all those involved in its production, recognised by the award of an EA Youth Service Youth Oscar. This cross-community achievement is reflected in two connected murals on the Limestone Road.
The junior members place a high value on the centre’s well-embedded ‘Reach 4 the Stars’ initiative through which their efforts and achievements are recognised and rewarded. It plays a key role in motivating them to participate and grow in confidence, enabling them to progress through the youth work engagement framework. The purposeful and positive feedback results in a ‘feel-good factor’ for the young people. Following an evaluation of the impact of this initiative by junior members, the staff have designed a similar, age-appropriate model for senior members. The evidence of the inspection endorses the value of extending this initiative.
In focus groups, the young people explained how they appreciate opportunities to try new things, develop practical skills and, if they are not successful at the first attempt, they ‘always get a second chance’. When parents pick up their children from the centre, the staff use this opportunity purposefully to share with them how well the young people are doing and their latest achievements; this approach strengthens relationships with families and reinforces a shared understanding of each young person’s progress.
There is a well-established system of monthly and annual awards for a wide range of achievements. Monthly awards enable the staff to recognise and reinforce the realisation of the centre’s vision. Annual awards ceremonies for the young people and volunteers are highly valued events for the young people and their families.
There is a consistent and effective focus on the young people gaining accredited qualifications including in peer mentoring (Level 1), youth leadership and sports leadership (Levels 1 and 2), as well as food hygiene certificates which support the young people’s progression to employment, or to the next stage of their education. There are also clear routes for volunteers to progress to leadership roles and paid employment within the centre.
E. Growing a community of learning
The centre is strongly embedded in its community, with proactive outreach to re‑establish connections to centre-based provision and encourage participation. Young people, staff and partners work collaboratively to support personal, social and emotional development. For example, the highly effective collaboration with Currie Primary School provides robust wrap-around care and ensures a co-ordinated response to the holistic needs of children and young people.
Strong partnerships with a wide range of community organisations enhance non‑formal learning opportunities and promote community cohesion. These include cross-community sports through Limestone United and well-established good relations programmes with Holy Family and New Lodge Youth Centres. Senior young people value opportunities to meet peers from different backgrounds and recognise the positive impact on their confidence, communication and relationship‑building. They spoke positively about building lifelong friendships and a strong sense of belonging.
Regular engagement with PSNI neighbourhood teams, Belfast City Council and other youth centres supports shared planning, consistent messaging and a collective approach to meeting the needs of the young people in an area affected by inter‑community tensions.
The young people play a meaningful and increasingly influential role in shaping the community of learning through a range of leadership and progression opportunities. Structures such as LYVE (Local Youth Voice & Empowerment), the Local Advisory Group, the North and East Belfast Youth Voice, in addition to surveys and co-design processes encourage young people’s active contribution to planning, decision‑making and helping to shape their learning and development.
The learning community is strengthened by a reflective, well-trained staff team committed to ongoing professional development and shared practice. The library supports a positive learning environment for the staff and young people, while collaboration with neighbouring centres promotes consistency and a shared vision across North Belfast. The centre’s commitment to supporting student youth workers within a culture of continuous professional learning is a significant strength, alongside appropriately planned training to further develop the adult volunteer team.
F. Child & adult protection
At the time of the inspection, the evidence provided by the youth centre demonstrates that the arrangements for child and adult protection align to the current statutory guidance. The staff would benefit from training by the EA in adult safeguarding arrangements in the youth environment.
3. Next steps
Mountcollyer Youth Centre’s clear and ambitious vision is firmly rooted in the needs, aspirations and contexts of the young people it serves: ‘Empowering and supporting every young person to improve their life opportunities by realising their full potential’.
As appropriately identified by the centre, the next step for Mountcollyer Youth Centre is to take forward the following area for action: to develop further their work with young men to strengthen engagement and promote positive masculinity.
The District Inspector will monitor the youth centre’s progress in addressing the area for action, as part of ETI’s routine monitoring processes.
Inspectors identified aspects of highly effective practice from which others may learn. The aspects of practice which should be shared more widely are:
- the centre’s active participation in extensive and well-embedded, collaborative networks to support the holistic development of the young people; and
- the commitment to early career development of and continuous professional learning for student youth workers.
4. Appendices
Appendix 1: Quantitative Terms
In this report, proportions may be described as percentages, common fractions and in more general quantitative terms. Where more general terms are used, they should be interpreted as follows:
Almost/nearly all - more than 90%
Most - 75% - 90%
A majority - 50% - 74%
A significant minority - 30% - 49%
A minority - 10% - 29%
Very few/a small number - less than 10%
Appendix 2: Notes
Page 3
‘Take 5’*
The "Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing" is an evidence-based initiative developed by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) designed to improve mental health and help people to flourish. The five steps – Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, and Give – are daily actions that can improve mood, strengthen relationships, and increase resilience.