300 teenagers arrived in Ireland last week from the USA, India and Northern Ireland for the Foróige Albert Schweitzer Leadership for Life Conference. Teenagers from almost every county in Ireland also took part. Inspirational guest speakers included world leaders in the fields of space exploration, music, business and sport as well as sustainable energy technology. Hollywood star Matt McCoy served as Ambassador for the Conference.
Foróige's upcoming Youth Participation Workshop will run in various locations around Ireland in September. 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.
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.
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.
1,042 Foróige volunteers participated in the Foróige Volunteer Survey. According to the survey, volunteers feel that the key things that young people benefit from are as follows: time to relax and have fun, friendship, a chance to work with other young people and support from caring adults. This is reflected in what young people say they are looking for from Foróige. One young person interviewed as part of research on the value of Foróige Clubs made the following statement which we believe perfectly describes the role of a Foróige volunteer: "Help us with our ideas, Communicate with us. Ask us how we are. Ask us what to do for the year. Get to know us or something”.
‘Friends of Foróige’ groups have been exceptionally busy in recent months! Groups are fundraising for their own Clubs and Projects and for Foróige nationally. Would you be willing to lend your support to Foróige? Does your son/daughter or your community benefit from Foróige’s presence? Are you a former member who would like to give back to Foróige? We would love to hear from you. If you are interested in getting involved in Friends of Foróige, please contact [email protected] for information or phone 086 0200995.
