Funding of €53.173m, including €1.75 for a new capital funding programme, has been provided to my Department in 2013 for the provision of youth services and programmes to young people throughout the country through a number of schemes.
These schemes include the Youth Service Grant Scheme, the Special Projects for Youth Scheme, the Young People’s Facilities and Services Fund Rounds 1 and 2, Local Drug Task Force projects and certain other provisions including the Local Youth Club Grant Scheme and Youth Information Centres. This funding supports the delivery of a range of youth work programmes and services for all young people, including those from disadvantaged communities, by the voluntary youth sector. There are some 1,400 youth work staff in 477 projects and over 40,000 volunteers involved in the provision of services and activities for young people.
Each year over 380,000 young people participate in youth services which provide youth work and non formal learning in its many programmes and activities; recreational, sporting, learning, volunteering and personal development. These programmes offer young people opportunities to acquire new competences and skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, resilience, motivation, creativity and leadership. These are core and transferable life skills; the 21st century skills that are so important to equip young people for the challenges in today’s world.
There is a growing recognition in Ireland and across Europe of the significance of youth work in promoting young people’s development, health and well-being, enhancing their participation in education, training and employment and the potential youth work has, as part of wider strategies to respond to the challenges that arise.
The role of research and consultations with youth sector interests and the young people themselves are central elements in my Department’s approach to the formulation of the youth policy services that are responsive to young peoples needs. My Department has commissioned a review of international best practice in the field of youth work to advance our understanding of the impact of youth services in the lives of children and young people. The study will inform a new Youth Policy Framework which is planned by my Department for later this year. The findings of the Growing Up In Ireland Study of my Department and other studies including EU studies have been significant in relation to providing information about children and young peoples experience of bullying and its impact on them.
The Action Plan on Bullying - produced by cross-sectoral working group on which my Department and the youth services were represented, contains a range of evidence based actions to support parents, young people, schools and community interests, in tackling this issue which can have a serious impact on young people. My Department will work closely with the Department of Education and Skills on the implementation of the Action Plan in supporting initiatives to raise awareness about the problem and implementing identified actions to tackle prejudice and promote a safer environment for our young people. The Youth Clubs funded by my Department are an important outlet for children and young people in this context. Their activities can help to build self esteem, increase confidence and strengthen friendships so that young people are better equipped to counter bullying behaviour.
The Youth Affairs Unit of my Department also provides funding towards the administration of the National Youth Health Programme . This programme is a partnership between my Department, the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) and the Health Service Executive. Funding of some €88,000 was provided to support the programme in 2012 by my Department.
The aim of the programme is to provide a broad-based, flexible health promotion / education support and training service to youth organisations and to all those working with young people in out-of-school settings. The programme has sought to develop the capacity of the sector and organisations to advocate on issues that affect young people and develop evidenced based resources and training to support that work. The advantage of this training is evident in the fact that Youth Work often acts as the first point of contact and referral in the interface with other youth-related services spanning the realms of care, health and welfare. In addition to mental health promotion in general, the programme delivers other training courses to Youth Workers on Mindfulness, Defusing Anger, Responding to Challenging Behaviours, Recognising and Managing Psychosis and Anti Bullying. The Programme has published a manual on best practice in Youth Mental Health Promotion; Good Habits of Mind and another manual on Bullying: Lets Beat Bullying.
My Department also provides funding to support the organisation Belong To under the Youth Service Grant Scheme. BeLonG To Youth Service is a national organisation for Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) young people (age 14-23) in Ireland. They provide direct youth work services to LGBT young people across Ireland by providing spaces where LGBT young people can meet each other, get involved in activities and see that their identities and selves are valuable and important. To help change negative societal attitudes to LGBT training is given to teachers, youth-workers and other professionals who work with young people. They also run awareness campaigns in schools and youth services, and work with government departments, politicians and HGO’s to ensure that LGBT young people are heard, so that positive social change occurs.
BeLonG To has a well developed advocacy programme that promotes positive recognition of LGBT young people, with a strong emphasis on ending homophobic bullying. It has also supported and commissioned research projects in partnership with the Children’s Research Centre, the Anti-Bullying Centre, the National Drugs Strategy Team and the National Office for Suicide Prevention. In 2010 Guidelines on tackling homophobic bullying in youth services were developed by BeLong To. Youth Affairs Unit gave a one-off grant of €15,000 to fund this.
