Katie Laffan, a Foróige member for 5 years has won the Hotpress ‘Big Break’ Competition, beating off serious competition from thousands of entries. The final shortlist of just five acts included Kodakid, Miracle Bell, The Scenes and Third Smoke. We caught up with Katie to a learn more about her phenomenal achievement!
Hello everybody! Our names are Adrienne Walsh (I’m a member of Fayz Foróige Club Kiltimagh Co. Mayo) and Jane Doyle (I’m a member of Scarriff Foróige Club, Co. Clare). In January this year we were both elected to Foróige’s Reference Panel along with 50 other young people from across Ireland. Our aim is to bring forward ideas from our various regions for group discussion and make recommendations to the National Council of Foróige on issues that affect young people.
Foróige has embraced evaluation! Young people are benefiting from their engagement in our clubs and programmes.The outcomes that young people are gaining are tangible, realistic and worthwhile. This is great news for us as staff and volunteers, great news for our young people and great news for our funders. All of the time you invest working with young people is paying off. Young people are doing better because of the time you give and now we have real results that back up our work. The time that young people voluntarily spend with us does lead to better outcomes for them.
If you’re interested in attending the Foróige Albert Schweitzer Leadership for Life Conference 2013, applications are now open! You can download the appropriate forms here.
Anyone aged 15-18 who is an active member of Foróige is eligible to apply for a place at the conference. All Foróige affiliated Clubs will receive information in the post. The closing date for receipt of applications is Monday 20th May. Late applications will not be accepted after this date as demand for places is very high every year.
Eric Cahill is 16 years old and has been a member of Mulhuddart Foroige Fishing Club in Dublin 15 since he was 10. During that time he has always shown a unique ability to listen and learn angling skills from his Dublin Angling Initiative tutors. He has attended numerous fishing courses in game, coarse and sea fishing run by the Dublin Angling Initiative. Eric recently caught a 12lb specimen trout from Lough Ramor, Virginia, Co. Cavan. This is the biggest fish ever caught by a youngster out fishing with the DAI.
I’m passionate about Foróige and all it stands for and strives to achieve. I would love to see every young person in the country benefit from the organisation’s input in some capacity. I believe all our young people, regardless of class or culture, deserve the chance to avail of the opportunities that Foróige can give.