Young Voices

These articles reflect the opinions and ideas of young people who may or may not be involved in Foróige. They represent the views of the authors as individuals and not necessarily the views of Foróige as an organisation.

Announcing the wonderful finalists of the Foróige Youth Citizenship Awards 2014

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Foróige-Notinuse October 3, 2014

Congratulations to all of our finalists who have carried out transformative, important work in their communities. They are an inspiration to everyone.

Announcing the finalists, Foróige's Head of Training Gerry McDonald said the standard of entries was extremely high this year and there was great variety in the projects.

"It is heartening to see that the Foróige Citizenship Programme is alive and well and living in communities all across Ireland. The standard of projects was extremely high this year and the team of judges found it extremely difficult to settle on the 8 finalists. A big well done to everybody who participated in the programme and entered the awards this year."

32 young people have participated in a Tall Ship sail around Ireland. Here's Foróige member Kirsty Hayes (16) to tell us all about it!

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Foróige-Notinuse August 18, 2014

In May 2014, 32 young people from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland took part in a 7 day youth exchange on a tall ship, the Morgenster. Two Foróige members were lucky enough to take part in the sail, Kirsty Hayes and Cormac Whelan. Kirsty (16) from Co. Cork has composed an article about her experience.

A week living on a tall ship alongside 31 strangers is bound to present its challenges, but late night watches and close living quarters made strangers into one big family. The adventure began for the Republic of Ireland participants in the Dublin Port Centre at 12:00 on Sunday 25th of May. From here we piled our mountain of “unnecessary” luggage into a small overheated bus and began a 3 hour bus journey to Belfast.

My experience at the Foróige Albert Schweitzer Leadership for Life Conference by Stephen Mackessy

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Foróige-Notinuse August 7, 2014

Over the past three years, I have been honoured and had the extreme privilege of attending one of the best youth leadership conferences in the world, the Albert Schweitzer Leadership for Life Conference. This year was my 3rd and final year as I completed the Advanced Module at the 6th Annual ASLFL Conference which ran in Maynooth, Ireland from Monday 28th July to Friday 1st August.

This year saw 250 young, inspirational leaders from across 4 countries (including Ireland, Northern Ireland, U.S.A. and India) gather for one of the best weeks of their lives.

Foróige sweeps the board at the Irish Cancer Society 'X-Hale Youth Awards'

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Foróige-Notinuse July 3, 2014

Through the X-HALE Youth Awards, the Irish Cancer Society encourages youth groups and youth organisations to play their part in helping to prevent young people in their communities from starting to smoke. X-HALE provides resources to youth groups to deliver message to the young people about the issues around smoking which are important in their community. Seven Foróige videos won in their categories! You can check out each of the videos by clicking on the links provided. 

Winner of our positive self image competition is article entitled, "I may not be perfect but I am always me."

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Foróige-Notinuse July 2, 2014

Throughout the month of June, we've run a competition on our Facebook page asking Foróige members, "What does positive self image mean to you?" Positive Self Image is the major theme for this year's Reference Panel - a representative group of young people who speak on behalf of all of our members nationally (see the Reference Panel Report here). The winning entry for the competition is an amazing article, "I may not be perfect but I am always me". The article is a personal story of how one young person coped through a particularly bad time and their advice to others. It is an uplifting read and we think a truly deserving winner of 2 x €30 Ticketmaster vouchers! Well done to our worthy winner - who asks that they remain anonymous - and all the young people who entered the competition.

Youth Participation Workshop now available!

youthparticipation June 20, 2014

Participate + Influence = Change

This workshop will provide practical training and advice for adults working with young people in a wide variety of sectors including local and national government policy developers, funders, clinicians, service managers, youth and community workers.

The workshop will give participants information on what youth participation is and is not, how to implement youth participation in their work and enable participants to consider ways to ensure young people are having a real say and influence over decisions being made in policy development, programmes, services, organisations and in their day-to-day work.

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