Tag Archives: Clare Youth Service

THE contribution Clare Youth Service volunteers make to young people in Clare has been celebrated at the recent annual CYS Volunteer Awards. After two years of virtual events CYS were thrilled to be able to hold their annual Volunteer Awards in person with the support of Ei Electronics. The annual Volunteer Awards are a key feature of the Clare Youth Service calendar in which CYS recognise important milestones in the voluntary service of the people upon whom the Service depends. The Volunteer Recognition Pin is awarded across the country to Youth Work Ireland Volunteers who give their time and energy to help and support young people by running youth clubs and schemes, supporting programmes, supporting organisations as advisers, fundraisers and as members of local and national boards. The scheme is based on recognizing length of service through the presentation of pins; Silver for five years and Gold for 10 years. In total there are 222 volunteers currently registered with Clare …

CLARE Youth Service is this week launching its 2022 Development Groupwork programme which will run in nine locations countywide over the coming months. Originally developed by Clare and Limerick Youth Services in collaboration with the University of Swansea and first rolled out by Clare Youth Service in the 1970s, the hugely popular programme has since been delivered to over 10,000 young people in every corner of Clare, helping them in their personal journeys as well as producing community leaders across the county. The programme is now being modernised, thanks to a three-year investment by the community support programme of EI Electronics, Shannon’s global leader in fire and CO detection products. In this phase, it will include over 100 participants in Ennis, Shannon, Kilkee, Kilmihil, Kilrush and Killaloe-Ballina. CEO of Clare Youth Service, Margaret Slattery says that the programme’s ongoing success is that it accepts every young person where they are at. “This is a great opportunity for young people who …

AFTER many years as a youth worker serving Shannon, Thomas O’Hara is moving into the world of academia. Thomas, who worked with Clare Youth Service in Shannon from 2006 to 2008, and again from 2011 until this year is taking up a position with TUS in Limerick (formerly Limerick Institute of Technology). Speaking to the Champion, he said he had really enjoyed working with the young people of the town, and found the level of community spirit in Shannon to be very strong. “The people there, the sense of community is absolutely amazing. Once people find out you are doing anything in the area they’re very quick to support it, I’ve found, and that was always an advantage to me in working with young people.” “It was a great way of showing young people how community supports itself, how to get involved in your community. “Sometimes that’s one of the key things for young people; where do I fit into …

IT may be high summer, but the usual activities are being run by Clare Youth Service in Shannon. “We’ve decided to continue on our programmes throughout the summer because the attendance at them is still quite high. Usually with people going away and doing different things you’d see a drop off, but because young people are still engaging with the programmes we’ve decided to keep them going and add in a few other ones,” said youth worker Thomas O’Hara. Young people about to start secondary school are being catered for, he said. “We’re starting our transition programme this week, our transistion to first year programme with groups of young people moving from sixth class to first year. That’s on Wednesday afternoons and it’s all based on discussions around what they can expect going into first year. We’ll be running through different communication games and exercises and stuff like that, a bit of team building and introducing them to the programmes …

THE untimely death of David Woodford in May 2020 was a huge loss, not just for his family, but also for the wider community and music lovers across the county. While Covid ruled out a large public gathering to mark his passing, David’s legacy is now enshrined in the launch of the Bassment rehearsal space at Clare Youth Service in Ennis. A generous donation from Eileen Woodford on behalf of her late beloved David has allowed young people at CYS to get together, remodel, and design the studio and rehearsal space located in the Ennis Youth Centre. As Eileen explained, David was always a supporter of Clare Youth Service and, with his band ‘Hot Ice’, had run an event to raise funds for the organisation, “David always had great time for young people and helping to revamp their space to allow greater opportunity for young people to come and play music seems very fitting.” It has been nearly 15 years …

YOUNG people with designs on helping to tackle the climate crisis are being offered a stylish opportunity in the Junction, Ennis which will see them set the trend for a more sustainable future. Clothes production is a major contributor to excessive energy use and Clare Youth Service, with the assistance of Youth Work Ireland’s Climate Justice Fund and Councillor Mary Howard, are now in a position to offer training to young people in reducing carbon footprint through sustainable fashion techniques. Having attended Sustainable Fashion workshops delivered by the Rediscovery Centre, CYS staff have rolled out programmes to young people at the Junction in Ennis as well as in Shannon. Two Sustainable Fashion Projects were recently run in the Junction Youth and Community building in which 12 young people had the opportunity to learn more about the impact of fast fashion and the importance of sustainable fashion. They acquired skills, knowledge and tools needed to upcycle, repair, alter and customize their own clothes. …

A GROUP of local young people recently completed a Clare Youth Service Upcycling Project in collaboration with the Gardai. The teens overhauled bikes, first stripping them down and then repairing and enhancing the two wheelers. “The idea is two-fold,” said Joe Saunders of Clare Youth Service. “One is in relation to climate change, just not to be discarding good materials. Raw materials from bicycles just go into landfill a lot of the time when they can be upcycled. “The second thing then is to give some skills to the young people as well, in relation to repair and reuse of materials and then cycling skills and safety, that’s why the Guards were involved, and they generated some of the raw materials and gave some instruction. So it covered a range of objectives.” His colleague Thomas O’Hara was involved in the first such project in 2017, and in 2021 it got going once more. “I had another group in 2021 that …

CLARE Youth Service recently hosted its first online information session for parents/guardians on the topic of LGBTI+ awareness. The event was run in conjunction with GOSHH (Gender, Orientation, Sexual Health, HIV) and, in response to demand, there will be an additional session on November 3. Brian McManus of CYS said the level of enquiries and social media sharing about the first session led to the organisation of an additional event. “Feedback from participants indicated that the information and format along with the friendly and non-judgemental style of facilitation had been much appreciated by participants,” said Brian. “One parent indicated that they felt relieved after attending the session, realising that other parents had experienced similar feelings and reactions. Another felt it clarified terms that they had heard used by their teenager and their friends.” The presentation included topics such as terminology associated with the LGBTI+ community, background information on issues and challenges for young LGBTI+ people, how to support a young …