UH/0731

£300,000 funding boost for Omagh Community House
By JOHN McCUSKER

Work to get under way in April
CONSTRUCTION work on the Community House at Market Street is expected to begin within the next three months following this week's announcement of a £300,000 award from the National Lottery Charities Board.
The project was among 26 groups throughout the North which benefited from the £2.9 million awards which are designed to help a wide range of community, youth and caring organisations.
Other local groups to receive funding included Omagh Women's Aid which acquired £100,000 to assist with its work with victims of domestic violence, and the Castlederg branch of Age Concern which received almost £75,000 to provide a rural outreach advice service.
The largest single payment, of £311,567, went to the Community House to help with an an ambitious project to build on the site of the bomb attack of August 1998.
The project will provide a centre for a range of community and voluntary organisations and, when completed, will be a landmark building costing, in total, £1.6 million.
The Community House will act as a 'one-stop-shop' for the community, providing a wide range of services to the disabled, older people, long-term unemployed, women, young people, people on low incomes, lone parents, ethnic minorities and children and families.
Symbolically, the building will be a lasting and fitting memorial to the victims of the Omagh bomb with a foyer dedicated to the victims. It will also serve as a centre for hope, reconciliation and peace for the community.
Conor McGale secretary of the development, described the award as a wonderful boost to the town at this time.
He said:"The grant will go a huge way in fulfilling this unique vision for the local community, as well as enabling the public to have access to a number of vital services within one place.
"The community building and the Foyer of Reflection will serve as a shining example of community, business and statutory body co-operation, despite the most provocative attempt at perpetuating division," he added.
Around 95 per cent of the funding required for the project has now been processed and Mr McGale this week stated that he was "very, very confident" the remainder would be in place within the next few weeks.
To date, the project has received £165,000 from Omagh District Partnership and and a $500,000 (£333,000) cheque from the Irish American Fund. Another £100,000 is on its way from the Ireland Fund for Great Britain, with a further two funding applications currently awaiting decision.
The development will go out to tender at the end of January and already around 35 companies, from throughout Northern Ireland, the UK and the South, have expressed an interest in the project. It is hoped to begin work around March or April of this year with the construction taking between 12 and 15 months to complete.
A total of 14 community groups will be based in the building which will also have facilities for training and conferences.
A special feature of the Community House development will be a glass-fronted foyer which will face onto Drumragh Avenue.
Mr McGale explained: "In the aftermath of the bomb a considerable number of pieces of art and books of condolences were donated to the town and it is planned to have these put on display in the foyer.
"The aim of the project is to have a building which will bring people back into that part of town which was devastated following the explosion.
"When it is completed, this will be a permanent memorial and shrine to those who lost their lives on that day."