Participants Stories
BUNCRANA YOUTH DROP-IN
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Name: Mark Reader
Job Title: Youth Support Worker
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Opening Times: Tuesday-Saturday 7:00-10:00pm, with late nights to 11:00pm on Friday's
I chose to get involved in youth work after coaching sports and enjoying the interaction with young people so I started volunteering which led onto me working at the drop in centre in Buncrana. I am currently doing the Certificate in Youth and Community Studies at the University of Ulster Magee and hope to go on and do the degree in the future. I want to do my part to help improve the youth service here in Inishowen to cater for the young people in the area as much as we can, in every way that we can. I love the work I do as everyday is different. It's challenging and extremely rewarding helping make a difference to empower the young people in the area.
We are a drop in centre so primarily we were a facility for the young people who weren't accessing the sporting facilities in the town to spend their leisure and recreational time in, however, along with this we are now running informal educational programmes and we are only touching the surface on other services we want to provide for the young people. I have been in this position since October 2010 although I had been volunteering a while before I started. I am involved in the day to day running of the centre and am working closely with other agencies to try and get more programmes for our young people that access the centre. Since I have been employed here our numbers through the door have gone from averaging 30-40 young people on our busy nights to 70-80 so we have doubled the amount of young people accessing the centre.
We are soon to be an official sattelite for the Youth Information Services headquarters in Letterkenny and we have started running cross border programmes and have been working closely with Donegal Youth Service, Inishowen Development and recently with the Western Education Library Board to get training for our volunteers and young people alike to provide a better service. I am finding my job great fun and very stimulating and as I said above, everyday is different. It's exciting because we are only just beginning and the potential for the place and where we want to be is exciting.
CASTLEFIN YOUTH CLUB
My name is Mary McConnell. I am based in the Castlefin and Doneyloop Youth Clubs. Castlefin Youth Club has 152 children/young people enrolled. Thursday nights 7:00-8:45pm are for seniors. Friday nights 7:00-8:45pm are for juniors. Doneyloop Youth Club has 100+ children/young people enrolled. 7:00-8:45pm are for seniors. Fridays 7:00-8:45pm are for juniors.
Both youth clubs provide opportunities for young people to participate in new activities/games such as uni-hoc, basketball, indoor soccer, dodge ball, ping pong, draughts, chess and informal educational programmes, in a safe supervised environment where they can feel free to express themselves without judgement. The youth clubs provide numerous programs and projects throughout the year which provides the young people with the opportunity to broaden their existing knowledge, challenge preconceived ideas, participate in new games/events, meet new people from different backgrounds, cultures & religions as well as build confidence and self esteem.
Programs & projects include personal development, cross-border media project, environmentalists project, intergenerational project, cross-border respecting differences project. Future projects to date include intergenerational photography program, girls personal development program and a cross-border initiative.
I am now in my 4th year on the project. Training which I have completed is a NVQ level 3 in facilitation, FETAC LEVEL 2 in community development and Child Protection. I am now in 3rd year of a Degree in Community Development. All going to plan, I hope to finish my degree and possibly commence my masters. Within my position I aim to participate in any training which may be relevant to my role as a youth worker. On a personal level I am very proud of graduating from LYIT with a Higher Certificate in Community Development in September. In the community I am very proud of the groups I have co-facilitated and have watched the young people develop and grow. I love my work in the community and working with young people. I enjoy watching them learn new things and gain confidence & self esteem from their participation in the clubs and youth programs/projects.
CLONMANY YOUTH AND COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTRE
Name: Katrina Ivers
Job Title: Youth Support Worker
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This is my second year working on the Community Employment Scheme in Clonmany Youth and Community Resource Centre which involves helping out with a wide range of activities such as football, basketball, badminton, working with children from 5-20 years of age, organising and planning tournaments and summer camps for the children, working with other groups outside the youth club and helping out with fundraising for the centre.
DAYBREAK
Name: Alison O'Connell
Job Title: Youth Support Worker
Opening Times: Mon-Fri, 9:30-4:00
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I began working as a Youth Support Worker with the Donegal Youth Service Daybreak Programme in October 2009. Having just completed a Masters in Applied Psychology, I really wanted to apply the knowledge and skills I had acquired and also get some hands on experience. The Daybreak Programme is an interventionist programme aimed specifically at 12-15 year old early school leavers, potential early school leavers and those experiencing difficulty in their current setting. Daybreak works directly with the young person, their referrers, families, schools, and other agencies to address each young person's needs through a combination of informal education and youth work. Participants identify goals which they aim to achieve. Young people attend the programme 1-2 days per week. Our aim is to support them in meeting these goals. In my role as a youth support worker, I tutor the young people on a one-to-one basis, concentrating on aspects of the curriculum they have difficulty with, such as literacy and numeracy. As well as academic support, we focus on personal and social development. I co-facilitate group work and discussions based on issues affecting the young people, such as self-esteem, anger management, coping skills, attitudes towards school, drug and alcohol issues, sexual health and relationships, and bullying.
DAYBREAK
I joined the Donegal Youth Service as a volunteer in August 2009. I previously worked in the Hotel & Catering Sector as an Events & Human Resources Manager. The part I most enjoyed was interacting with the staff and being responsible for payroll, holidays and general things throughout each employee’s time in their jobs. With the recession hitting the industry I was made redundant and I questioned what I would do next. Since joining the DYS I have happily come to work everyday. I am studying a degree in Community Development in Magee University in Derry, which I aim to complete the course in two years time. The DYS recommended this course and with this qualification I hope to have a career in Youth Work.
Daybreak is a programme designed for early school leavers, potential early school leavers and poor attendees between 12-15 years old. Daybreak operates through a referral process and opens four days per week. Each young person join the programme voluntarily and they attend one day per week. We offer numeracy and literacy, social development, group workshops which motivates young people to return to school or enrol on further training plans. We work with each young person on a one to one basis. This programme is continually changing the lives for young people and for parents. Day to day work in Daybreak is so varied, there is so much to learn. It is challenging in the sense that with the job comes emotions. I cannot imagine doing anything else now. It is a fantastic job.
DONEGAL YOUTH SERVICE
Hi, my name is Margaret and I’m a working mother. I started working with the Donegal Youth Service in October 2009. I chose this job so that I could gain more experience in administration work. The more experience and training I receive will help me find work when this contract finishes. I have done Child Protection and ASSIST training. I have completed year 1 of my Accountant Technician Course and I have just started year 2 of the Course and on completion of this and with my experience with Donegal Youth Service I hope to qualify as an Accountant Technician.
I am employed as a receptionist and part of my job is that I liaise with the Clubs, sending out Affiliation Packs and on their return dealing with their insurance and doing up the statistics for the clubs. I do the staff minute taking, filing and writing letters. I deal with cheques and all general banking duties, write up the post book and post the mail. I also deal with the Garda Vetting. I love my job and enjoy the work. I feel more confident now than when I came in here as the people I work with are very helpful and friendly and I feel I fit in.
DONEGAL YOUTH SERVICE
My name is Akua Yeboah. I’m originally from Ghana but I have been living in Letterkenny for ten years. I got to work in Donegal Youth Service by chance and I’m so grateful. I volunteered with the Youth Information Centre for six months, whilst in the information Centre I had the opportunity to work with the youth and do clerical work.
I applied for the position of a receptionist because I am a person interested in a job with good future opportunities. I am highly motivated, self determined, serious, fair and a friendly person. I know that a company like Donegal Youth Service could offer me the possibility for building myself a successful career and could offer me the career challenge which I am seeking. As a receptionist, my job is to answer all phone calls that come in, write cheques, send information to the youth clubs, receiving and posting letters, filing and general office duties.
Working in DYS has been fun and challenging because there is always something new to tackle. I look forward to doing more training and administrative courses to equip me for the future. I hope by the end of my time here I will have achieved my aims and have received the experience I need to move on in life.
DONEGAL YOUTH SERVICE
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Name: Helen Quinn
Job Title: Housekeeper
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Opening Times: Mon-Fri 9:00-5:00pm
My name is Helen Quinn. I started working for the Donegal Youth Service in June 2009 through a FAS Community Employment scheme. It has been a big step for me to be back in a working environment as I had not worked in years. Since starting I have completed a few courses- ECDL and Child Protection. My duties as housekeeper are to make sure the place is clean and safe to work in. I also do other things such as helping out in reception when needed and Daybreak, which is a scheme that helps early school leavers or people having difficulty in school getting back into the mainstream school environment. I really loved it as I got to know how things work and the work that is done to help teenagers. The staff are really friendly and everyone is treated equally. I gained confidence and a lot of knowledge of how things work in the Donegal Youth Service.
DONEGAL YOUTH SERVICE
My name is Pauline McNamee. I started working as an administrator for the CE Scheme in the Donegal Youth Service in October 2010. I recently completed an accounts course and wanted to gain more work experience in this area. I am responsible for all the administration relating to the DYS CE Project and this includes general admin, accounts, processing wages and processing timesheets. I am currently completing my ECDL course and have just recently started a FETAC Level 5 Manual Accounts and Payroll evening course with FAS. I have completed a Child Protection course. I have also completed Stage 1 and Stage 2 of a Sage 50 course and hope to complete Stage 3 in the upcoming months, which will benefit my future career greatly. By the end of my time here, I hope to have gained enough experience to help me get a job within the accounting industry. I am really enjoying being back in a working environment and have met some great people here in the DYS office.
MANOR PLAYGROUP
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Name: Roisin Gallagher
Job Title: Playschool Assistant
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Opening Times:
I am married and have two girls. I have been on the DYS CE Scheme since September 2010. I work in the Manorcunningham Community Playschool and after school club. I work three evenings in the after school club and two mornings in the playschool. The children in the after school club are aged between 4 and 11 years old and the kids in the playschool are aged from 2-10 months to 4 years old. I had been unemployed for 2 years when I applied for this position. I hope to further my career in childcare and hope to go to the VEC or FAS to complete Level 5 in the next year. I enjoy the work that I do and enjoy learning the things involved in running both the playschool and the after school club. I have completed a Food Hygiene course and First Aid course which will both help me in my work setting. I hope to gain a lot more experience in my year as a CE worker.
MANOR RESOURCE CENTRE
Name: Joe McBrearty
Job Description: Caretaker
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Opening Times: week days from 10am 'til late, depending on what's going on!
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I am employed by the DYS CE Project as a Caretaker in Manor Resource Centre. My main duties are to maintain the centre, i.e., painting, cleaning setting up rooms for activities and the outside grass cutting and gardening. I also welcome users to the centre and open/lock up after groups. The groups that use the centre are scouts, health board, youth work, irish dancing, old time dancing, kick boxing, badmington. football club, mothers and toddlers group, computer classes, events, festivals, basically anything the local community wants! The centre also caters for parties with bouncy castles.
I have undertaken Child Protection training, Health and Safety, ADR tanker driving and CPC driving. I have just started a computer course and I am also looking at other courses which I intend completing in the near future. I enjoy my job as I get to know the local people from the young to the old.
MILFORD COMMUNITY PROJECT
I always wanted to work in the Youth sector and started out volunteering in Daybreak. I then completed a Youth Leadership programme which has now led me into being a Youth Worker in Kilmacrennan, Milford and Planet Youth in Ballybofey. I hope to gain more, hopefully in the future by studying Youth Work and gaining a qualification. So far this has been a brilliant experience and the best job I have ever had!
The work that I do in the clubs varies as there are different age groups.
Monday Youth Club in Milford is the Homework Club for 6th class, which runs from 3-4.30pm. Recreation includes Art, Games, Pool, Table-Tennis, DVD’s and general conversation. On a Monday evening it is the Secondary School age group, which range from 1st to 3rd yrs. The evening usually consists of a local volunteer who has a skill i.e. Hairdressing or Stone carving who give their time to demonstrate their talents and give the youths the opportunity to try out what they have to offer. Other times it can be a Pyjama party or a visit to the local Fire Brigade station for a tour or a visit to the local Guard Station + check out the cells! The younger Homework group is on a Tuesday 3-4.30pm for 4th & 5th; this includes recreation after homework is done, again, Art, Games, DVD’s, Pool, Table Tennis.
In Kilmacrennan, Wednesday evenings at 6.45-7.45pm is the younger group, 3rd+4th class. Usually for the younger ones there is Art, Pool, Games, Table Hockey, Soft Football, we had a competition for creating a club logo and a trip out to Ballyshannon to go water boarding & surfing is on the agenda for all groups. From 7.45-8.45pm is the older group, 5th &6th class, we do all the above plus more creative activities which includes Baking, and Knex . On a Friday night is the Secondary School night, this is usually a night for the youths to meet up and hang out. They listen to music, play Xbox, Pool, etc and this week a Hawaiian theme night is being held for the girls!
Planet Youth in Ballybofey is a drop in centre. Between 12-2.30 the 2 local Secondary Schools are the main users of the club, they usually hang out playing Pool, Table – Tennis, Foosball, Darts or Internet.
PLANET YOUTH
My name is Claire Bradley. I live inBallybofey, Co.Donegal. I have been working in the community with young people as a volunteer for the past 15 years. I was a member of the John Paul Youth Club growing up and with the help of my volunteer leaders it gave me the opportunity to experience and learn lots of life skills and showed me that working with young people was something i loved to do. In September 2010 I got the chance to work in Planet Youth, a local drop in centre for young people which i helped set up when I was a volunteer, as a Youth Support Worker, a job that I am really excited to have. We are currently running programs for groups of young people such as cookery, arts+crafts, computers, dance and drama. We are also getting a group of 16 year olds trained up as junior leaders. This involves them getting training in Child Protection, Leadership training and lots more. In April of this year we hope to have the afterschool club started twice weekly. This will bring young people from the ages of eight to twelve years old into the drop in centre. While using the drop in they get the chance to experience and learn new skills, make friends and lots more.
The Young Woman's Group is a new venture for Planet Youth and targets young women from the ages of 12-18 where they will meet once a week and take part in lots of activities including workshops on self development, health, etc. They will also learn arts+crafts, dance, drama, have trips away to the cinema, theatre and lots more.
Planet Youth is open 5 days a week from 12 noon-2pm which is used for lunchtime drop in for the two secondary schools in the area. The students come in to eat their lunch, go on the internet, play table tennis, pool, darts and take part in fun competitions and hang out with their friends. Every Thursday evening from 7pm-9pm, Planet Youth is open for youth club where young people from all over the Twin Towns get together for fun and games.
In this job I hope to contribute as much of my experience to the young people that visit Planet Youth and expand my own learning in youth work by taking all the opportunities of training that i can.
RAPHOE FAMILY RESOURCE CENTRE
My name is Robert Porter. I am married and have five children. Due to the downturn in the economy I found myself without a job in April 2009. I applied for the position of Youth Support Worker in the Raphoe Family Resource Centre in March 2010. I was delighted to get the job. The family resource centre organises activities for all age groups. I help organise and work in the after-school clubs and youth café. I really enjoy my job. The work is both challenging and rewarding. I have completed some courses relevant to my job including child protection, youth leader and youth workers courses. The courses have been very beneficial, giving me useful ideas and a greater insight into the job. I am currently doing an after-school club course and a Fetac Level 5 ‘Working with Young People’ course and hope to continue training in this field. I never expected to change my occupation or try something new but having done this job for the past eight months, I hope to continue in this line of work.
RAPHOE FAMILY RESOURCE CENTRE
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Name: Lorraine Gallagher
Job Title: Youth Support Worker
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Opening Times: Youth Club: Mon/Tues 3-5pm, Wed/Thurs 2-4pm, every second Fri 3-6pm, Youth Cafe: Wed/Thurs 7-9pm
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My Name is Lorraine Gallagher and I have recently begun working in Raphoe Family Resource Centre as a Youth Worker on the Community Employment Scheme. I have been involved in Raphoe Family Resource Centre for over a year now and have been involved in a number of community projects including the afterschool programme. I enjoy working with the diverse range of people involved in the centre. I chose to accept my offer to the CE Scheme as a youth worker as I have been working with the children for over a year now and enjoy the fact that no two days are the same. I enjoy developing and planning a schedule with a variety of different activities from IT skills, sport, creative arts and many more to aid in the development of children - promoting self confidence and self esteem.
Outside of the resource centre I am completing my CACHE level 3 in working with children with behavioural difficulties and special needs which enables me to work with a broad spectrum of children within the Youth work sector. I have already begun a Fetac Level 5 in First Aid, important to know when responsible for the health and safety of children, due to be completed soon and I have began the Fetac level 5 in Youth work to give me a qualification in this area. In completing the Fetac level 5 I would like to continue my qualifications into the area of community development.
THE YARD YOUTH PROJECT
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Name: Stefan Hinsch
Job Title: Youth Support Worker
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Opening Times: Mon-Fri lunchtime drop in, 12:00-2:00pm
Friday nights 6:00-9:00pm
My name is Stefan. I am a native German and 45 years of age. I chose rural Ireland as a place to live in 2007, after living in Berlin,Germany for about 25 years. Coming from a technical background and after becoming unemployed in 2009, I started volunteering in my community to avoid loneliness and a bad feeling about taking dole money for doing nothing. After being asked repeatedly to help out in the community’s youth centre, I developed a certain preference for this kind of work. So I was very happy when a corresponding position in my local CDP Pobail le Cheile’ became vacant by the end of 2010, which I could take over.
I plan to apply for any kind of community-work training and youthwork related training respectively, offered by the DYS. Also, I hope I can do a computer-hardware related training course during my time with the organisation. I’m hoping to be of some good use for my community. For me at the moment that means doing successful youthwork in the first place. I’m looking forward to becoming an experienced, skilled youthworker. I’m enthusiastic... I love my job and I can tell you, that’s been a rare occasion for me so far.My tasks include the preparation and carrying out of youth centre drop-ins and excursions. We are also planning to provide after-school band practise once a week in the near future. There’s a Hip-Hop dance group every Tuesday and a young girl’s group every Wednesday night. Our youth centre offers several activities, such as a pool table, table tennis, karaoke, space for young bands/musicians, dance, internet workplaces or just hangin’ out.
YOUTH INFORMATION CENTRE
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Name: Gifty Ohene-Asare
Job Title: Assistant Youth Information Officer
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Opening Times: YIC: Mon-Thurs 10-6, Fri 10-5
Drop-in: Mon-Fri 2-6
I work on the CE scheme at the Donegal Youth Service. I work in the Youth Information Centre as an Assistant Youth Information Officer. This is my second year on the project and I must say I have found every bit of it enjoyable and rewarding as I have had the chance to work with some of the loveliest people one can wish for.
The Youth Information Centre offers free confidential advice and information for young people, parents and other professionals who work with young people. This is done on the phone, through email or one to one basis. I help with the administration of the office, delivery of efficient information in all areas of life including, rent, career, CV preparation, interview preparation, tenancy. I also help out at the drop in café in the afternoons and early evenings. On Wednesdays, I assist with the running of the youth democracy group where the youth, together with the youth workers try to help with their issues. I assist with the compilation of accommodation and employment lists every week, as well as keeping them on the YIC website and sending to over 27 resource centres.
During my term on the CE I have done loads of training which I could not have had the chance of doing elsewhere. I have completed Child Protection Training, ASSIST suicide training, ECDL, assets based community development training, Nicem Equality and Diversity training, community youth work training and I am currently on a business, administration and office skills training. I am still on the lookout for other training in terms of youth work and office skills as I want to equip myself well with all the training I can take on. The achievement on this scheme is priceless, the diversity of my work makes it more interesting, every day is different and that is a challenge as well as fun. So next time you need any information ranging from job offers to bus times do not hesitate to call us or even if you need someone to have a cup of tea/coffee with, our offers are always open.
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