Navan South Communities Unite

The Navan South Communities Unite Facebook Page is fast becoming the 'go to' Information Page for all Johnstown Residents and it doesn't need much of an introduction, you simply need to join it to find out more.

If you're not willing to join Facebook then unfortunately you'll miss out on the latest up to date news and activities in our neighbourhood until the next edition of this magazine brings you up to speed, albeit a few days late.

With a current membership of 1,060 local residents it is growing daily and has increased by 100 in the past month. It still has a long way to go until it represents the 2,250 Johnstown Community households as the central source for local information and discussion.

The Page does not replace the need to have local estate group pages but it shares common interest subjects to our connected community.

We talk with Adam Curechm Forde, the site founder, who has helped us to cross the estate boundaries and bring all the residents together as the Johnstown Community.

Why create this page & what does it do?

"I created this page over two years ago when I noticed an increased element of anti social behaviour across the estates and some graffiti that had been sprayed on a walls in my estate of Johnston Wood.

I wanted to highlight this to the residents and see if we could unite together and keep an eye out for one another. I know many people across Johnstown and Navan and this site was a chance for us to alert everyone on the page if there were goings on occurring in estates which usually spread across into other estates in Navan.

All the local estates have their own residents pages where residents would usually post something about vandals or dodgy looking characters to be on the look out for, but this was localized and as we know these people are very mobile and if they are up to no good in one place they will be up to no good in the other estates as well. This page highlighted the dodgy people to everyone."

Are you alone or are there helpers?

"There are two admin people on the page and anyone that's in the closed group can post reports, useful info, the page is monitored and we try to keep the 'sellers of goods and services' off the page there are enough of these pages about!"

Why is it a closed group and who can join?

"This is a closed group, there is no point having someone living in America being on the page as they wouldn't have an active interest in it. This group is for people who are parents, elderly, vulnerable people and people who care for their community. Anyone messing on this group is removed and blocked."

Is there a theme that people tend to post about?

"A lot of good news is posted on the page, missing people, events occurring in Navan, local news and people highlight issues arising i.e. fly tipping, graffiti, broken services and then there are the reports of anti social behaviour like the stoning of cars at the People's Park, putting the wire across the roads in Boyne View, fighting youths in Johnstown Wood etc."

Some of the postings could come under Neighbourhood Watch Schemes but there's also many notices of general interest, good and bad, which may affect residents such as local events & fundraisers, lost and found, local services and even a rare job vacancy.

Does it get noticed by the Council, are there members on it?

"There are members of Meath County Council on this pages and they have helped in the past when there has been issues raised that were being ignored or put on the long finger.... they have stepped in and helped resolve issues."

What does the future hold?

"If it can reach more people we'll have a bigger collective voice and be of more use to Our Community."

With 1,000 adult followers the site reaches around 25% of the Johnstown adult population and perhaps as much as 50% of the Households. This is a large collective voice and network with regular postings highlighting the good causes within our community together with any antisocial behaviour, alerts for local criminal activity and generally things that have annoyed residents.

You can request to join the group and follow the Facebook Page below: