Build A Bike Programme - in the Castle Project Ballyogan

The Castel Project in Ballyogan ran a programme duringn the summer aimed at encouraging to people to develop their fitness by getting involved in cycling and mountain bike trekking. The only snag was that the young people that were involved in the programme had top build their bike first!

In three sessions, the young people learned how to build a bike from stratch - attaching handle bars, brakes, gears, chain and wheels.
Once the bikes were road tested and working perfectly, the young people got 4 training sessions in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains learning about such subjects as 1-finger front/back braking, attack position for fast down-hill cycling over rough terrain, ramping off slopes and bike maintenance/repair.

All the young people worked very well as a team helping each other to complete the bikes in the building sessions. They also encouraged each other and developed a strong sense of empathy towards others limitations in the more challenging parts of the trekking sessions.



Returning to Nature....Gardening Programme @ The Rec, Nutgrove

 

We set the aims of the project to be
:
•    We wanted to learn about growing their own vegetables  
•    We wanted to start recycling our waste and rubbish  
•    We wanted to, learn what it means to care for a living thing, and to enjopy the satisfaction of producing our own crop.
•    We were interested in finding ouit about the cycle and the connections in nature, of plants, animals, insects, people and why it is important to nurture and value each part etc.

Partnerships with local community:
The garden tools were lent to us by a local resource centre. The bath, and other recycled containers were given to us by members of the local community. Top soil and mulch have been donated by Marley Park, who has also agreed to give us an old picnic bench that we can renovate with the young people. We would like to acknowledge and thank PJ Hyland from Marley Park who very generously provided us with top soil and has agreed to give us some bark mulch for our garden. Two workshops on composting, planting acorns, the cycle of life within nature and bird feeds were also provided by the Environmental Section of Dlr County Council. These were very well attended and very beneficial to the young people. We grew lettuce, carrots, cabbage and onions and had a very successful crop at harvest time.

Composting & Recycling

Recycling and finding new and innovative uses for discarded waste is important to all of the Rec team. This part of our garden represents the different and innovative ways waste can be used in the garden.

At harvest ti,e we had an open day for parents and our friends. We had a barbeque and used lettuce, carrots, onions and herbs from the garden in our cooking –eg burgers with lettuce and onions enjoyed by everyone!!!!

Plans for the future....
We hope that we will continue to care for the plants on an ongoing basis. We hope to build a gazebo and further develop the garden.
The working garden will be used to grow a range of vegetables that will be used as part of a cooking programme. The theme underpinning this work is Health and Wellbeing and it will continue over the coming years. It is envisaged that networking with the wider community will create an awareness of our youth garden and generate interest from parents and the public.

Ballyogan Adventure Sports Club

This club has been running since September 2010, with ten enthusiastic young people aged 12 to 15 years.  The purpose is to engage with young people through the medium of adventure sports, to have some fun and to develop an interest in outdoor fun and adventure.  We meet every Thursday afternoon, and engage in activities such as abseiling, rock climbing, cliff jumping, orienteering, kayaking and many more.  In June 2011, the group embarked on a three day camping residential to Doolin, Co. Clare.  The activities included cliff jumping, surfing, a night hike, a visit to the Cliffs of Moher and a trip to the island of Inis Oirr by ferry and a horse and cart experience on the island.  The residential was a huge success, the young people are still reliving it and have begun talking about planning their next trip to Co. Clare!

'The Beat' Youth Cafe - Dun Laoghaire

Dun Laoghaire has its own Youth Cafe! It is a great place to hang out on a Saturday night - hear some music and make some new friends. If you are bored with with your usual Saturday night , check out the 'THe Beat' Youth Cafe.

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The Youth Cafe is run by a committee, who are made up of 20 local young people who in consultation with their peers, will be responsible for how the Cafe will look and run. This is avery excitng project for all involved.

In the mean time, the Youth Cafe nights are running every second Saturday night in Carmona Services, Patrick St., Dun Laoghaire from 7 - 9.30pm. 'The Beat' Youth Cafe is a place for young people to come and hang out on a Saturday night. There will be live bands, drama performances, quiz night and lots of activities for young people to come and enjoy.
If you are a young person interested in coming to the Youth Cafe, please text 'Cafe' to 085 1783573.


CYC and Summer Projects 2011

CYC supported some 150 summer projects this summer, which gave over 20,000 children and young people fun and leisure activities during July and August. Summer Projects are organised by volunteers aided and supported by CYC. CYC provide programme supoort, training (including Child Protection Training and Garda Vetting), administrative support etc.

 Hilljoy Summer Project

This year for the first time Ozanam House has operated a programme of activities for teenage young people in the area. This became known as the ‘Hilljoy Youth Group’. Most of the 20 young people who engaged in this programme throughout the year had previously engaged in the centre in our Ozanam Youth group for 6 to 12 year olds. When they left the OYG  we worked for one year to recruit volunteers and to develop a focused quality programme for the teenage age group as this was a glaring gap in our service.

The group was a huge success throughout the year and as the year ended it was clear from feedback and demand from the young people and their parents that they really wanted to continue this group into the long summer holidays when it was felt they were most at risk of developing anti social behavioral habits if they were not engaged in some programmes in some way.  We subsequently planned to continue to offer a service to this new group and to run a summer project for them. We hoped to extend the group to up to 30 young people, engaging other young people that had heretofore engaged in the younger summer project (6 to 12 years).

With the invaluable support of agencies such as ‘Catholic Youth Care’ the new ‘Hilljoy Summer Project’ began in June. The project ran for four weeks during June and July. During this period the young people involved were given the opportunity to experience a range of different activities at a variety of venues. They had the opportunity to steer the project in a way that appealed to their interests while opening them up to new experiences.

Integration of All Children in Ireland (IACI) Summer Project.

One of the most successful project that is affiliated to CYC is the Integration of all children in Ireland (IACI), formerly called Integration of African Children in Ireland. Through Sports, Arts & Crafts, Music & Dances, Poetry & Drama, children are encourage and exposed to various cultures and tradition including their own and are taught how to adapt themselves with the Irish Culture, done by Irish children themselves. There are 70 children in the North Inner City of Dublin and 85 in Tallaght.

 Former Lord Mayor Councillor Catriona Jones
at the Summer Project in 2011.

Creative Writing Exchange

As part of the Youth in Action Programme, Swords/Baldoyle Youth Service hosted an Intercultural Creative Writing Exchange for young people .  The title of the exchange was New Individual Speech through Writing. This Exchange was supported by  Leargas, Swords/Baldoyle Youth Service and other sponsorship.

New Individual Speech , was a Creative Writing Project that brought  together nineteen young people and six leaders from three countries, Ireland, Norway and Spain to explore creative writing in a safe and encouraging environment.  Using the Amherst  Writers and Artists Method which was developed by Pat Schneider in the USA, the leader led the group using the method which believes that  everybody is born with creative ability and writing as an art form belongs to all people regardless of economic class or education.  Through creative writing, public speaking, team building exercises and outdoor activities, the project  gave young people the opportunity to express themselves, to grow as people in an inter-cultural environment, to build self esteem, communication and presentation skills.  Throughout the week, the group was led through many writing exercises which they wrote both in English and their mother tongue and encouraged to read their work aloud in small and large groups.  The young people were also taught the skills of giving positive feedback to each other which contributed also to their listening skills.  The group also took part in inter-cultural activities having the opportunity to experience food, dance, song and writers from the three different countries.  The outdoor activities included orienteering, rock climbing, raft building and gorge walking which offered the young people the chance to build multi-cultural teams , working together to achieve a goal.

The event took place at Petersburgh Outdoor Education Centre, Co. Galway, Ireland over eight days from June 27th to July 4th.

Next year Norway will host the exchange.




Young People and Faith

 What was World Youth Day like......

World Youth Day was not two million young people suddenly – irrationally even – experiencing some sort of epiphany and shouting loud in praise of God with fires on their tongues like the Pentecostal apostles. Naturally, the streets were filled with the energy of two million festival-goers, tourists, friends, youth groups and clubs. The atmosphere of a concert, a football match or indeed a huge party pervaded the city. We weren’t inexplicably changed, the joy and jubilation is to be expected when a plethora of teens, twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings come together to celebrate. ...(Michael Kavanagh- Pilgrim)

When you come home.......

No holiday lasts forever. And we all know that when you get home from your one or two weeks off abroad, your problems are waiting for you when you return. But hopefully, you’ve come back to those problems a little happier, a little more rested, a little more capable to take them on. World Youth Day was a wonderful experience, and like everything, an all-too-quickly fleeting one. Yet, we were asked anonymously to write a little prayer for what we wanted to find in Madrid before we left, and I don’t mind sharing it with you now, I wrote ‘I am looking for something to quieten my cynicism’. And I got it. I come home saying this; people are essentially good no matter their wrongs, and God is in the everyday, if you look out for Him...... (Michael Kavanagh).

The John Paul II Awards

The Pope John Paul II Award is dedicated to the memory of the late Pope John Paul II whose love of young people was so profound. The Award was launched on 7th November 2006 in the Diocese of Derry, Ireland.
If you are aged between 16 and 18 and living or going to school in participating Dioceses, the Pope John Paul II Award will enable you to become more actively involved in the life of your parish and community. Religion is not just for learning, nor a list of rules designed to stop you doing what you want.

Catholic Youth Care held their first Award Ceremony for the Pope John Paul II Awards in City Hall Dublin in September.  The Award consists of a certain number of hours done at a Parish level and a certain number done in outreach work in the community. Depending on the number of hours completed by the young people they received a Gold, Silver or Bronze Award.
The ceremony was well attended with over fifty students from various schools around Dublin, Killcullen and Athy receiving their Award from Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and their certificate from Fr. Jim Caffrey.   
 
In his address to the young people, he congratulated them on their achievement and encouraged them to continue with their involvement in the life of the Church.  He was impressed with how the Pope John Paul II Awards had spread right across the Dublin Dioceses.  Some of the projects undertaken by the young people were the Log and Learn which is a programme to help elderly people in the community to develop skills with computers through one to one tutoring.  Another group worked on producing a children’s prayer book, a radio programme on the Parish radio, writing for the Newsletter, Eucharist ministers, singing in the choir, and helping out in the life of the Parish.   

Awards Presented By Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin.