'JIMS' celebrates 10 years
The JIMS Project has just celebrated 10 great years in its current premises in Greencastle Street, Kilkeel. Seventy young people, volunteers, employees, managers and trustees past and present gathered for a celebratory dinner and service over the weekend.
JIMS is a cross-community drop-in centre for young people run by Kilkeel Parish Bridge Association Limited (KPBAL). The project aims to provide a safe and neutral environment where young people from both communities can come together for recreational activities.
Young people coming into JIMS are encouraged in multiple aspects of their lives: mental, social, emotional, and spiritual. Its witness has brought many young people to faith and nurtured a generation of young Christian leaders. Several shared at the Sunday night service how instrumental JIMS had been in their lives.
The vision for the project sprang from a prayer triplet of Christ Church parishioners and, under the then rector, Canon David McClay, it became a reality. Due to overwhelming demand, JIMS quickly outgrew their original premises and moved into Edgewater House in 2001.
In 2008 those premises were extended and refurbished to include an IT suite and kitchen and disabled facilities including toilets and a lift. On the first floor, there is a large multi-activity room with a stage, office accommodation and storage space in addition to the existing meeting/activity room.
Neville Willerton, now Church Army's National Projects Officer for Fresh Expressions, was a youth worker with the project in its early days and he returned to give the address at the anniversary service. He spoke of his many fond memories of Kikeel and, speaking from Jonah, issued a challenge to each person to submit their lives to God's bigger and better plan.
In a short speech on Saturday evening, David McClay remarked that, 'It's not the beginning of a project that really matters, but its continuation.' JIMS now looks forward with excitement and anticipation to the next 10 years of service to the young people of Kilkeel.
Pictured: the original prayer triplet of Coilin Gibson, Mervyn Nugent and Ivan Henderson (Project Manager).
For more information about the programmes, visit the JIMS website.