Citizenship has been core to Foróige’s work for 50 years. The Foróige Youth Citizenship Programme is a youth development programme that empowers young people to use their talents and initiative to make a positive difference to the world around them. It involves young people researching the needs of their community, organising practical action in response, evaluating the effectiveness of their work and reflecting on what they’re learning along the way.
Background
The Citizenship Programme was established by Foróige in 1969. Youth civic engagement or citizenship refers to young people taking action to make their communities, schools or society a better place, by volunteering to do socially valuable work. Promoting active citizenship among young people has the benefit of both improving communities and promoting the social, psychological and intellectual growth of the young person. The core model underpinning the programme is one of ‘awareness, action, evaluation’ whereby young people undertake a three phased approach to identifying and responding to a community or social issue.
Aim & Outcomes
The Foróige Youth Citizenship Programme aims to enable young people to make a positive difference in their community by taking part in a citizenship project. The programme will motivate and equip young people to:
- Define what citizenship means to them
- Research their community’s needs
- Illustrate ways in which to benefit their community
- Plan a project to meet an identified need using a planning model
- Organise and manage their project
- Evaluate the effectiveness of their project
- Demonstrate improved communication skills, collaboration and civic responsibility
- Receive positive recognition from their community