Foróige was delighted to be given the opportunity to be part of the Children’s Rights Alliance film project on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Not only did we have two Foróige young people working on the Young People’s Project Team, we also had three Foróige former members volunteering as facilitators in the workshops, our Advocacy Youth Officer working on the Advisory group and one of our Senior Youth Officers appearing in the film in an interview about access to recreation spaces for young people.
In February of this year, the Children’s Rights Alliance put out an open call to member organisations to nominate young people to participate in the film project. We were delighted when two Foróige young people; Nathan Quirke from Kildare and Rowena Malee from Mayo, were chosen to be part of a team of 23 young people from all over the country to participate in the project after they submitted their application forms detailing what they felt they could bring to the team. Three former Foróige members, Michael Kiernan, Jessica Trimble, and Sarah Kearney provided facilitation support in the preparatory workshops and brought their valuable experience of volunteering with young people in Foróige.
Alongside this, Foróige’s Advocacy Youth Officer, Susan Carey, was also asked to participate in the Advisory Group whose purpose was to advise the Children’s Rights Alliance in relation to implementation of the UNCRC Film project. Our Advocacy Youth Officer sought to ensure that the principles of youth participation embedded in Foróige were adopted in the making of this film and that equal weight was given to the opinions of young people and adults throughout the process. Foróige’s Senior Youth Officer Gavin Byrne who works in Blanchardstown Youth Service was asked to partake in an interview for the film on access to recreation spaces, one of the three themes chosen by the Young People’s Project Team.
