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.
Self image was the big issue at this year’s Reference Panel Conference and Regional Conferences. Last year’s Reference Panel, in response to the issue of bullying and negative social pressures focused on creating positive environments for young people. This year’s Reference Panel focused on the other side of the coin – young people’s perception of themselves – how they can develop inner strength, resilience and a positive view of themselves, particularly in the face of adversity. As it is impossible to eliminate all negative pressures, it is essential for young people to develop these personal qualities if they are to grow to their full potential. As the proverb goes, “It is better to wear a good pair of shoes than to try to carpet the whole world”.
A sense of their uniqueness and the freedom to be their true selves was considered extremely important by the Reference Panel. They felt that despite the social pressures it was well worth the effort to achieve it. It was essential learning for young people in Foróige.
The video 'A Day In The Life Of A Young European', (see here: http://bit.ly/1gzyCin ) was produced by teenage members of Ireland’s leading youth organisation, Foróige. They produced the video to mark Europe Day, which is an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe. Europe Day was celebrated in Europe at the offices of the European Commission on Dawson St. in Dublin. Sorcha Hodgins, Joe Aylward, Temi Liadi, Aisling O’Callaghan, Aaron Colfer, Nikita Evans, Jessie Reid and Eibhlís Moriarty also produced an education pack which will give people the opportunity to explore in more detail the issues covered in the video.
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.
