ONE of the Mayor of Llanelli’s chosen charities was celebrated at the Mayor’s Parlour on Wednesday (Oct 11).
Mayor Jeff Edmunds and civic dignitaries hosted a reception for Carmarthenshire Youth and Children’s Association (CYCA) – a non-profit charity that relies solely on donations to ensure that the much needed local facility can run to provide a much needed service within our local community.
Cllr Edmunds said: “It’s vital, currently, to engage with our youngsters and have a system in place to ensure that they don’t slip through the net, CYCA is a vital charity to aid this and they work tirelessly as an organisation, I’m so proud of the work that CYCA does within our community.
“More publicity is needed so that people know what needs to be done within the community. There’s so much work being done within the town by so many organisations. I’m so passionate about education – the cuts that have been made I have been fighting tooth and nail, and I shall continue to do so because I know the outcome and the impact that it has, we are seeing it now especially those that are governors within schools.
“It’s great to help the children that the education system doesn’t always catch; we have organisations such as CYCA which offer that safety net to help these children as well as their parents.”
Tracy Pike (Chief Executive Officer at CYCA) said that the funding was appreciated: “It’s nice for the Mayor and his consorts to find out about the work that we do – they are often surprised about what CYCA does.
“The trustees and staff at CYCA are delighted to be in attendance this evening and we all feel very much appreciated, it’s always a good night and an annual event that we look forward to.
“I love my job, it’s so rewarding helping traumatised children and their families. I’m so humbled by their stories and so privileged that they trust us enough to open their hearts. I’ve got brilliant staff, thirty members in total which is the smallest number that we’ve had in years.
“We’ve premises in Copperworks School as well as Palms Training Centre, we do after school clubs and holiday clubs. We’ve had to reduce our staff greatly as the funding has ended. Slowly we’re starting to get funding back in the pot again, hopefully we can reinstate the services that had to stop overnight.
“We’re hoping to have funding now from Big Lottery. We’ve had funding from Waterloo, European Funding, Target Finance Fund, Leader Funding and Carmarthenshire County Council has been great. We’ve also had Santander funding, Primark, Town and Rural Council. However it’s not anywhere near enough for the services that we need to offer,” she added.
“We’re always looking for donations from the general public be it time, equipment or money. What I always say to donors is that if they give to a national organisation, that money goes throughout the UK. Please give to Llanelli and Carmarthenshire charities because the money goes directly to local children. These children and families desperately need the money.”
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