Pages 6 June - City of Dublin Youth Services Board

drugs counselling centre and a youth house and assist in providing
much-needed resources such as food and medical care for the people of
Igaupe.
For the Northern Ireland exchange, our contact was through a staff
member who had previously worked there and our contact in Argentina
was a result of our link with Irish missionaries working in that country.
Our first action was to attend a training programme around the
Youth programme, it was very practical as it showed you how to fill in an
application form, make contact with another partner and the basic
ground rules for any exchange.
The most difficult aspect was the fear of the unknown. Would we be
able to deliver? Could we get over the language barriers? Prepare the
budgets? Could we deliver a full programme? Would our young people
enjoy the experience? Once we got over our initial nervousness and once
we completed our first exchange, we learned fairly quickly that no
problem was insurmountable.
The youth programme is additional work and when you are
embarking on your first exchange you tend to spend more time
preparing and planning than is necessary. However, I believe the Youth
Programme is a tremendous tool that youth organisations should make
use of for young people. The workload can be built into your annual plan
and then it becomes manageable.
The Youth Programme has been a tremendous boost to our
organisation, it has enabled us to encourage young people to participate
in a broader range of programmes and it has acted as a recruitment tool
for us. We now have a waiting list of young people who want to take part
in programmes. As an organisation we gained a tremendous amount of
new learning. It opened our eyes to how other youth workers and
organisations work with young people and it gave our staff new
confidence in their own practice. We have also seen the positives for
Léargas is Ireland's National Agency for the management of National,
European and International co-operation programmes. These involve:
• Education and Lifelong Learning
• Vocational Education and Training
• Youth and Community Work
• Guidance in Education
Léargas enables and supports people, organisations and systems to
harness the benefits of transnational partnership. Through European,
bilateral and international programmes, Léargas enables the
development of intercultural awareness, facilitates change management,
and helps develop new responses to the need for innovation in
education and the workplace.
The Youth Work Service (YWS) is responsible for the delivery of
programmes and services to the non-formal education sector. The Youth
in Action Programme of the European Community offers funding for a
variety of opportunities for young people aged between 15 and 30 years
who are resident in 30 countries (the 15 Member States and other
countries within the programme). For information contact
youth@leargas.ie
Leargas also offers national and international training activities
focused on building skills and quality in developing youth exchanges,
seminars related to emerging issues and policy, and partner-finding
events for projects starting. In addition to youth exchanges we also fund
and support youth group initiative projects, youth democracy projects,
young volunteer exchanges, the development of strategic approaches to
International youth work for organisations and development of dialogue
for European youth policy.
• We run an Ireland UK programme called Causeway focused on
helping young people break through barriers of historical and
cultural misunderstandings. www.causewayyouth.org
• A North /South youth exchange training programme for youth
workers and teaching professionals www.ncompass.org
• A European youth information portal www.eurodesk.ie
You’ll find out more at www.leargas.ie/youth 9
young people from disadvantaged areas; it has opened their eyes to new
communities and has taken some of them out of the mindset that the
world is only where they live.
When we look back on the experiences so many of our young people
have had, it’s amazing. We‘ve now been involved in over 11 projects
which ranged from arts to peer education, drugs awareness,
environmental issues and media production, sport and health.
• 40 young people on a multilateral arts-based visit to Poland.
• 50 young people hosted in Ireland from Poland, Luxembourg,
Holland, Ireland (Sport & Health)
• 24 young people on Drugs Awareness programme to Amsterdam
• 6 Young People on Exchange to Ankara Turkey (Leadership)
• 24 Young people to Athens Schools Network Olympics
• 40 young people on Trips to Brussels (Education)
• 3 staff on Training weekend Copenhagen (Peer Education)
• 40 young people from Lithuania, Austria, Italy, Ireland on
Multilateral visit hosted in Ireland (Peer Education Drugs Awareness)
• 40 young people to Luxembourg on a Multilateral Exchange (Media)
• 40 young people on a Multilateral Visit to Lithuania. Countries
involved included Italy, Poland and Ireland (Health & Dance)
• 50 young people visited Brazil, July 2006 (Environmental). Countries
involved were Argentina and Northern Ireland
Our plan now is to look at the EVS programme and to see if we can
incorporate this into our work. The Youth Programme provides
opportunities for youth organisations to develop the range of
programmes they can offer young people. If you have fears about
organising a project like this my advice is, ask for advice. It’s always
available ■
gerry@ballyfermotys.ie