A community training organisation helping hundreds of young people each year is celebrating 44 years in operation.
Impact Training, based on Lanark Way, delivers a range of training and employment programmes designed to assist the unemployed into work.
Each term, 200 young people walk through their doors, with staff at the ready to help them achieve their full potential.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Gary McKay said it is a rewarded opportunity for him to take on the Executive Director role - and even more special as he remembers attending Impact Training when he was a teenager.
He said: "If you are 44-years-old, you're doing something right. Family in the community know the ethos of Impact Training and you build a reputation for yourself.
"Our big intake is always going to be September. The kids leave school in June, then July and August is a big sell period for us. We would draw from Ardoyne quite a bit, New Lodge, Tigers Bay and right across East Belfast.
" About 85% in here would be within a four mile radius. We have other initiative to branch out better into East Belfast too. It's a great vibe in here, there is a good buzz. The staff know where they are, what they are working for. I am relaxed and I explain to staff that the one thing that would annoy me would be if I thought a kid wasn't getting the service they deserve."
With Impact Training, young people have the opportunity to learn and grow through a variety of programmes.
They include joinery, child care, retail, engineering and ICT.
And when the young people return to Impact Training years after their first welcome, it gives the staff pride in the work they are so passionate about doing.
"There is no doubt whatsoever that young people develop at their own levels and in their own ways," Gary added.
"From the day they walk in to Impact Training to the day they leave, the young people are heavily scrutinised because we have eyes on them. The journey should become in, get all your maths, English, ICT, all the vocations
"The stories are endless - from people who have came to Impact Training years ago. It is good to hear. It's not just about a kid leaving here, we are very keen to know how they get on in a few year's time. They'll come back all the time with their work uniforms on from where they got a job and of course it is rewarded for our team, how could it not be?
"I am big on parental involvement in the organisation and think relationships with the family is the answer to most things. Work placement is the be all and end all, if we can get kids out on work placement, we are happy. The more I can have parents in here and finding out about their kids the better.
"I always like the term 'being embedded into the local infrastructure'. From our end, we are a part of this community and that is key.
"It's back to the old, if you write a book who do you throw on the front type of thing. We have so many people to thank and acknowledge for their support. The Greater Shankill community, there's no doubt at all, have been brilliant, the funders go without saying who are the Department for the Economy. Our board members too who are all great too and they are what make us tick.
"We are looking forward to another 44 years."
For more information on Impact Training, please visit here.
