The Attic Foróige Youth Café in Longford town has won the ‘permanent tsb Foróige Youth Citizenship Awards 2011’ with a recession busting Discount Card encouraging young people to shop local in return for a 10% discount in participating local stores.

Volunteer Ireland have announced that the winner of this year’s Ireland Involved Awards, supported by Panadol are two Kildare teenagers Conor Malone (17) and Conor Kavanagh (18) for their work with the Jumping Jellybeans Clubs. The winners were honoured at the prestigious Ireland Involved Awards ceremony at Dublin Castle on December 5th in the presence of President Michael D. Higgins.

After receiving a phenomenal response and trawling through hundreds of entries, Volunteer Ireland announce that Kilkenny native – John Sullivan has won first prize in the Ireland Involved Awards 2011, Children and Young People Category, in recognition of his work with Foroige.

18-year-old Kyle McMahon has just returned from Vienna, Austria, after representing Ireland in a competition that saw him up against Europe’s most talented and recognised young entrepreneurs.

Young people from participated in a special “Vision for Ireland’ Youth Forum putting the spotlight on Presidential Candidates on the role young people will play in their vision for Ireland.

Teenager Kyle McMahon (aged 18) a student attending Bonnybrook Youthreach in Coolock is the winner of the Foróige Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011. The talented youth used his passion for working with wood to carve out his own pathway to prosperity by manufacturing handcrafted wooden toys. His products include a clock, airplane and jigsaw range.

Friday 11th March 2011: Youth Groups from the county are now invited to enter the 2011 ‘permanent tsb Foróige Youth Citizenship Awards’, which recognise young people who are doing their bit for society and working to make their communities a better place. The awards are all about positivity and energy, and are an opportunity for local youth groups to showcase the valuable work they do in the community. As well as being involved in Regional Awards and a National Citizenship Awards Event in the Helix in Dublin, a number of groups will have the chance to be profiled in a two-part TV series called ‘Ireland’s Top Teens’ which will be aired on TV3 later in the autumn.

The all-new Get On Board for Youth Mental Health campaign - a call to action to get youth mental health on the political agenda - was launched on 9 February, 2011. Four national youth organisations are spearheading the campaign – Foróige, Inspire Ireland, Headstrong and BeLong To, because while we regularly hear candidates talking about the importance of investing in our young people, issues that matter to young people, like their mental health, rarely feature in debates.

Foróige Launches Youth Manifesto Foróige, Irelands leading youth organisation, launches its youth manifesto ahead of the general election today calling on all parties to commit to a programme to maximise the potential of Ireland’s young people as a key strategy to support Ireland’s economic and social recovery.

A new survey examining attitudes to young people reveals that young people are generally perceived positively by society, but are treated unfairly or harshly by the media. Almost seven out of 10 people (66%) polled say that they view young people in a positive light. However, when it comes to the representation of young people by the media, a similar two in three (68%) strongly agree the media feeds on negative stories, as negative news gets more attention.

A G8/G20 summit of world leaders with a difference takes place in Dublin this week as an elite group of 250 young people aged between 15 and 17 from across the world attend a leadership conference to perfect their leadership skills and be inspired to follow in the footsteps of world leaders such as Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Bob Geldof and Nelsen Mandela.

A very exciting development for the Citizenship Programme and the thousands of young people who participate in the programme every year, is that, for the first time ever, the extraordinary work that young people undertake in the community as part of the permanent tsb Foróige Youth Citizenship Awards will hit your TV Screens this autumn.