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 that we already have here in the Youth service.”
Later on Wednesdays its bicycle programme, in which young people are shown the skills involved in improving older bicycles will be run. “On Wednesday evenings we have our bike project, we’re going to continue that through and hopefully get another few young people interested as we get a few more older bikes in to be worked on.”
Thursday also has two activities. “On Thursday we usually have our music project, which has come out of a collaboration between Clare Youth Service and Music Generation Clare. We have that running through the summer, young people will be coming together and building bands.
“Continuing on from the transition programme, we will have a kind of first year support group on Thursday evenings, bringing young people from sixth class in and doing an activity a week. For instance ths week we’re making homemade pizza in a woodfired pizza oven with the group. That’s from 6-8 on a Thursday.”
A programme based on creativity takes place on Friday. “We do a thing called Makerspace. We had a group that sort of transitioned past it so we’ll be offering the opportunity to other young people now, to do a few taster sessions on the Friday in our warehouse space in Smithstown. That’s all based on STEAM, science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, it’s using motors and bits and bobs and mixing it with craft, to come up with concept designs and projects and stuff like that. It goes through a lot of critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, communication and team building to create these projects. We also do soldering projects and things like that too. People are free to join on Fridays from 1-3pm in our warehouse.”
On Friday afternoon the Youth Service’s drop-in afternoon will run from around 3.30pm to 7pm at the Family Resource Centre in Rineanna View.
Saturday morning gives young people a chance to work on their creative projects at the Youth Service’s space in Smithstown.”We’ll be looking at bringing people down on the Saturday afternoons if they’re in the Makerspace to sort of tinker with their projects, or if they’re in the bike project they can come down and work on that.”
Later on there will be a creative drop in space, where people can practice music, but Thomas says people can also come to socialise. “People are also free to come down and just have a chat and hang out.”
Further information on any of the activities is available from Thomas on 085 8019666.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.