Youthscape

Hundreds of young people in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland have been supported by the Youthscape project, which received almost €4 million in funding under the Children and Young People theme of PEACE IV. 

This was a cross-border, cross-community, interventionist initiative, developed by South West College in counties Fermanagh and Tyrone, alongside Donegal Youth Service and TIDES Training. The project delivered a proactive, youth-focused programme for young people aged 14-24. It operated across Omagh, Enniskillen, Dungannon, Ballybofey and Letterkenny with more than 800 young people engaging for at least six months. 

Youthscape created a ‘person-centred’ approach to learning. Each participant was assigned a key youth worker at the outset to help ease them into a group setting. Any barriers the young people faced were identified and they were signposted to additional support as required. 

A typical week for participants included day trips, group work, studying for an Open College Network (OCN) accredited qualification in Vocational Studies and one-to-one mentoring with their dedicated youth worker. 

Music, sports, cooking workshops and art activities formed part of the project and a dramatic display of graffiti art was created by the young people following a workshop event with local organisation, UV-Arts.

Each group also worked on a social impact project to raise funds for a nominated charity. One of these, the One Million Steps Walking Challenge, raised more than £2,600 in just 24 hours for Pieta House, which operates across Ireland and provides support to those who self-harm or are in suicidal distress. 

The Youthscape project was able to respond quickly to the challenge of the Covid pandemic. While the young people involved began to feel the effects of isolation, staff responded by implementing more frequent one-to-one calls, a variety of contact methods, a dedicated health and wellbeing facilitator and fun online activities to suit all interests.