Scariff youth group lined up for X-HALE Short Film Festival

A Scariff youth group is participating in this year’s X-HALE Short Film Festival, an initiative developed by the Irish Cancer Society to encourage young people to take action on the issue of smoking in their communities through the visual and engaging medium of film.

A delegation from Fish Bowl Youth Service are among the participants and they recently attended a film-making workshop to give them the basic skills and will now spend the next few months preparing their film for entry into the film festival, which will take place this summer.

All the youth groups involved in the workshop have received grants from the society to develop their project. In total this year, 31 groups have been supported by the Irish Cancer Society nationwide. The society has awarded over €100,000 to youth groups and organisations through the X-HALE Youth Awards to create smoking-related community awareness projects since the initiative started three years ago.

The X-HALE Youth Awards are part of the Irish Cancer Society’s Young People and Smoking Initiative and are designed to generate youth centred, positive, smoke-free initiatives for young people in a way that is both sensitive and relevant to their community’s needs. They work with young people to address tobacco-related lifestyle issues and support them in the development of positive youth-led activities. Their ultimate goal is to empower young people to take ownership of their own health and make the commitment to smoke-free lifestyles.