YMCA Cork Annual Report 2015

Front Cover

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Contents

03 President’s remarks and YMCA Vision

04 Promoting Youth Development

04 Wot!

05 Step 2014-15

05 LIT Overview

06 díon

06 Cork Youth Information Centre

07 Groundfloor

08 Global Youth Work

09 Promoting Healthy Living

09 Heart ‘n’ Soul

09 Signposts

10 Youth Counselling Service

10 Equip

11 Achievements

12 Acknowledgements

12 Contact details

The YMCA has shown me there’s another way to live and given me a second chance“

”

Inside Front Cover

This year’s report is the last one in which our longstanding and long-suffering Treasurer, VICTOR TUTTY, will be making an appearance. Victor has served the YMCA in Cork now for well nigh 50 years and has been THE great stalwart of the organisation upholding YMCA traditional values and outlook while embracing change and new developments in the YMCA’s youth work programmes over the years.

He was also a great custodian of the YMCA building cherishing its heritage and uniqueness.

We salute Victor, thanking him for all his hard work and dedication over such a long number of years and wish him good health and every blessing in his retirement from YMCA work. He will be sorely missed.

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YMCA Vision

President’s remarks:

Once again we welcome you to Cork YMCA, and thank you for your interest and encouragement. No individual and no organisation can function alone in the modern world, and we are grateful to our supporters and our sponsors for their contribution to our ongoing work, and to God for his continual blessings, as we seek to serve young people in Cork.

Our first tribute this year is to Victor Tutty, who after nearly fifty years of service to the YMCA is retiring from the Board of Management. The Y was a very different organisation when Victor first became involved, long before even the first STEP group! Victor combines a strong Christian faith, wisdom, quiet good humour and sound practical sense. We have all benefited from his presence amongst us; Victor, thank you, we will miss you! We wish you health and happiness, and do keep in touch.

There have been challenges in the past year; amongst them some significant financial cuts. Sadly, due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to say farewell to two respected members of staff: Louise and Susan. I would like to take this opportunity to

express again the Board’s appreciation for all their hard work and their contribution to the YMCA, and to wish them well.

One of the strengths of the YMCA is the loyalty of service and adaptability of our staff, always ready for new approaches. STEP is 25 years old. Groundfloor, relatively new on the scene, goes from strength to strength in its appeal and achievements, and Digital Media Literacy projects continue to grow in the Y.

On the Management side, we look forward to working more closely with Co Cork and Dublin YMCAs from next year, sharing our common aims

Enjoy reading the reports of our past year!

~Hazel Minion (President)

• We believe that young people should have opportunities for personal growth and development

• We believe young people should have opportunities that promote their physical, mental and spiritual well being

• We believe young people should have opportunities to engage with their local communities

The work of the YMCA is based on three basic beliefs:

The main focus of YMCA work in Ireland is supporting young people to grow physically, mentally and spiritually. We have been delighted that during visits by National Council staff to local associations across Ireland, the promotion of youth development is being supported and nurtured at all levels and with all ages using youth work methodologies such as youth participation, youth leadership and vocational training. Leadership opportunities for young people are a key priority across YMCAs as they recognise

that the young people of today have the potential to be tomorrow’s leaders.

As an organisation the YMCA has long championed the notion of physical, mental and spiritual well-being as central to its work with young people. Indeed health has been consistently identified by local YMCAs over the past decade as a key issue for young people and has remained so over the past 12 months.

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“In terms of personal

development, I definitely

made an awful lot of friends

when I first came here. I was

quite shy, I found it very

difficult to talk to people

whereas now it’s extremely

difficult to get me to

shut up! “

Promoting Youth Development

Again a year of change on the Wot! Project. Irene returned from maternity leave. Ian and Irene share the position of supervisor. Mark moved to a position with KDYS. John O’Connell finished up in his position as administrator as his time on CE came to an end. Éadaoin Berkeley joined the team in April in the youth worker’s position.

Wot!

The group completed the set modules of Communications, Food and Cookery, Health and Fitness, Intercultural Studies, Personal Development and Work Experience. Certification was achieved for those who completed and passed modules. 10 participants got Certs for Manual Handling, 6 First Aid Certs were awarded, 2 participants passed their Driving Theory test, 1 participant received a FETAC Certificate for Communications level 4 and 11 participants received ECDL Certificates, 4 of which were full ECDL Certificates.

This group really enjoyed cookery both making and eating their creations. They decided for their community project to do a fundraiser which involved making cakes and selling them at the farmer’s market in Mahon Point. They raised over €170 euro for the children’s ward in CUH.

When the group was asked what their highlight was for 2014, they spoke with fond memories about the outings. The sports day held in Cobh with the STEP groups, according to them they won the event. Also the team building day in East Cork Adventure Centre where all became very competitive and had no difficulties running through a bog of mud!!

Three participants were given an EVS opportunity to travel and stay in Greece for four weeks organised by Mahon CDP. This cultural training programme involved the young participants meeting young people from different counties and learning about their culture. When asked what they learnt from

their experience they said they realised now how much more we have in Ireland and yet we complain about it.

Four young participants secured employment in 2014 after leaving the project. One participant is now employed as a porter with AIB, one as a retail assistant with Tesco, one participant is working as a childcare worker in a crèche in Blackrock and another young participant secured a contract with Amazon as a telesales person.

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STEP 51 graduated in June 2014 in the Cork Vision Centre. The 10 participants who started in September 2013 all successfully completed the course. They completed 2 very successful work experience placements and many of the participants went on to further education and employment including courses in Childcare Special Needs in Cork College of Commerce and Computers in St. Johns. 9 participants received their full ECDL certificate. 8 attained a full FETAC Level 4 Award (8 modules successfully completed) and 2 further participants successfully completed between 5-7 FETAC Level 4 components.

In September 2014 the 52nd STEP group in Cork YMCA started. There have been a number of highlights of this STEP course. One highlight was a successful trip to visit Dublin YMCA in October and the group took part in many activities

including rowing on the Lee with Meithal Mara, trips to the Glen Activity Centre and an art project with Cork Community Art Link to produce an installation for World Book Day in the library on the theme of Banned Books and Censorship. They also completed a project for Intercultural Studies with the Carers Association.

The current STEP participants secured 2 work experience placements in their chosen career areas. They have also attended the PLC college open days and attended career guidance counselling. They have applied for college courses, completed interviews and feel more hopeful about their future. There has been great collaboration between the different services in Cork YMCA and the STEP participants have really benefited from the services of Díon, Counselling and the YIC. They will graduate on 3rd July.

STEP 2014-2015

A large number of the leaders trained in 2013/4 helped to lead a major YMCA European Youth Leadership Camp in YMCA Greenhill, Co. Down during the Summer of 2014. This event was a major success with 7 countries represented.

Our Leaders in Training courses were rejigged this year to contain 3 self-contained and more manageable courses: the introductory YLIT,

LIT (for those who wanted some training but who were not interested in FETAC and Advanced LIT (ALIT) for the FETAC L5 Award. The content covered an introduction to Youth Work, to YMCA and its methodology, to leadership skills and styles and to dealing with simple tensions and finally a group project. 9 young people completed this course, 7 of whom were young volunteers in GroundFloor

Course facilitators were Chriszine Backhouse and Zen Tshabangu.

The ALIT Course is scheduled to commence in May 2015

~Gef Dickson

Leaders in training (LIT) Overview

Áine went on maternity leave in January 2014 and Kay O’Regan did a great job as STEP Co-Ordinator until Áine returned in December 2014.

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2014 was another successful and very busy year for the díon project. Despite the pressing financial constraints and ongoing concerns regarding a sustainable level of funding, the project continued to offer a valuable service to the young people who availed of its services.

The various parts of the project continued to be very busy:

MondayNightLive(MNL): while there are peaks and troughs in the numbers using the service, overall the numbers were very healthy over the course of the year, with an average of 20 young people attending on a weekly basis, with as many as 50 young people at peak times. MNL continued to support young people by providing a safe, informal space for them to socialise and express themselves. Thanks to some funding from the Sisters of Mercy Solidarity Trust Fund, we continued to provide some food and beverages to the participants. The project continued to enjoy close links with other YMCA projects, in particular, GroundFloor.

The link with the Cork Foyer continued despite issues with attendance, and it is hoped to work on

this to ensure more sustainable numbers in future.

The one-to-one work continues to be the main service that díon provides, and this year the project continued to provide support and guidance to a large number of young people. It was clear to see a lot of young people “moving forward” in their lives and pointing to the valuable contribution that díon made to this journey. As is previous years, the project continued to get a large proportion of referrals from external agencies, as well as from other YMCA projects, notably GF, YIC, STEP and YIC.

Díon continued to provide a high quality service to a large number of young people (170+ young people used the service over the course of 2014), despite significant challenges.

I look to the future with optimism, hope and a sense of profound gratitude to the volunteer team, without whom the project would be much poorer and elements of it would not be possible. I look forward to working with them in the coming year.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

~ John Russell.

Centre Based Service The Youth Information Centre is continuing to work with the new Strategy which is based on the changing needs of young people. Our focus is Positive Mental Health and Employment and also providing generic information where necessary. We are working on a new publication with more detailed information on Mental Health supports in Cork for young people and youth workers, this will be launched shortly.

Díon Report

Cork Youth Information Centre

We continue to provide information on a wide range of issues to young people who call to the centre, and to offer our CV services.

Publications

Among others we continue to produce the Going to College publication and send it to all 86 schools in the city and county because teachers have said how good a publication it is. Therefore this publication is photocopied in most schools for all their Leaving Cert Students because of the relevant information it contains.

We still produce other publications, such as our Education Grants, Finding Student Accommodation, Cyberbullying, Working Abroad among others.

Not Alone Leaflet.

We were thankful again to have enough funding in the budget to produce 25,000 copies of the notalone.ie leaflet and 100 posters and send them to schools and youth organisations who requested them. Our feedback on this resource is always very positive. Not Alone.ie is also promoted through Facebook.

Techspace

Techspace is still a new programme for us using Free Adobe software, photoshop and Premier Elements to allow young people to have a voice on their issues through the use of technology. These projects are then exhibited by Adobe through their Adobe Voice Platform. We worked with 12 young people on a digital media project over 10 weeks. They produced a video on their vision of Cork.

Outreach

Outreach is also an important part of our work. We continue to run our Signposts programme (see below). As part of our continued integration with other YMCA projects, we have regular slot with STEP and refer clients to Díon.

A parent’s talk was given in Bishopstown on CAO.

We continue to provide the Libraries with relevant information when we can.

Cont’d on p.8

MNL continued to support young people by providing

a safe, informal space for them to socialise and express

themselves.

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Groundfloor ReportGroundFloor is heading into its fifth year and still reaching out to the next generation of Cork City youth. Our young leaders continue to provide loads of energy, inspiration and hard work on behalf of their peers and beyond.

Leadership and Peer Support

In 2014 - 2015, we expanded our leadership programme to include ALIT (Advanced Leaders in Training). Thanks to Chriszine and YMCA Ireland, we have been able to train seven new leaders in group process, peer support, child protection, youth work principles and much more. In August, Chriszine and TJ led a group from Cork to the International YMCA Volunteers Camp in Greenhill. It was an amazing opportunity for eight of GroundFloor’s young leaders to meet other young leaders from YMCAs all over the world and share ideas and experiences. All of our leaders continue to receive regular staff supervision, attend monthly Leaders Meetings and participate in relevant training and support throughout the year.

The young leaders really are the lifeblood of GroundFloor and they help to ensure that the more targeted work of peer support happens in and around the open-ended work of events and hangout time, etc. Thanks to these dynamic young leaders, a large number of individual young people are receiving profound support for significant life challenges such as drugs and alcohol, employment and education, mental health and identity formation. They are also frequently referring individual young people onto Cork YMCA’s professional youth work services such as counselling, youth information, independent living support, and vocational education.

Events and Productions

This year, GroundFloor hosted five major events organized into three streams: Frequency, Overdrive and Foundation. Frequency is the name that we have given to acoustic performances. Overdrive is for rock and punk and Foundation features hip hop. The idea is to mix and match these event streams so that young people get to meet and hear each other in new contexts and collaborate across cultural and genre barriers that often tend to divide youth culture. Our GroundFloor Productions Facebook Page is the online home for much of this and worth checking out if you want to see and hear more! www.facebook.com/GroundFloorProd

The biggest event was our Christmas party which welcomed nearly 100 young people into the building and featured 22 young artists and bands performing across all three of the gig streams. We also provided delicious food, dancing, prizes and games. I was so proud of our young leaders who ran the whole event seamlessly and opened YMCA’s doors to many new young people who did not know about the service previously.

Facilities

In 2014 we were able to achieve a major renovation thanks to a grant from IPB Insurance. This went towards a complete overhaul of our bathroom and kitchen as well as a much needed upgrade to our studio, installing acoustic treatments and a new mixing console. These improvements have proven to be invaluable in all of the daily work that we do.

Looking Ahead…

One of our major efforts this year was to identify specific measurable indicators that we could use to document and evaluate our work in the future. We have settled on four themes, each with two indicators, for a total of eight. These range from Building Confidence to Improved Mental and Physical Health, to Artistic and Technical Skills Development, etc. We hope that these indicators will bring clarity to our description of GroundFloor and also serve as a guide to keep us true to our purpose as we continue to evolve. Our main strategic goal for 2015 is Consolidation. This means that we are setting systems in place to further support and supervise our volunteers, properly measure the community value of the project and ensure that GroundFloor is safe and sustainable for the future. ~David Backhouse

Here’s an overview by the numbers

Open 4 days / week (Tuesday,

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday)

Average daily attendance: 355 special events this year

(attendance for each between

60 – 100)

150 – 200 young

people in regular contact with

GroundFloor.

18 young leaders, including 7 newly trained this year

1 new member for YMCA Cork

Board of Management (hooray

Zen!)

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I have witnessed huge

personal growth among

participants in the course of

this work.

-Catherine Leahy

Global Youth Work has taken the guise of Understanding Interculturalism with both STEP 51 and STEP 52 over the last year.

STEP 51 showed great commitment to the project component of this by linking in one evening a week over the course of a few weeks with the Up Cork LGBT+ group. The groups met to discuss issues such as prejudice, discrimination and conflict that effect this minority group in Irish society. There was great learning for all involved in this. After taking part in the project the STEP group decided they wanted to do a survey on attitudes toward Marriage Equality and Same Sex Adoption, this was in June/July 2014 and was after the FETAC folders had been submitted so it wasn’t to get extra marks or anything like that! In the small sample survey that the group conducted 57 people took part. 30 females, 23 of whom were in support of marriage equality and 7 against. 26 males, 21 who supported marriage equality and 5 against. One person didn’t circle male or female and was in

support of marriage equality. It will be interesting to see if this sample in any way reflects the outcome of the referendum on May 22nd.

The Wot! group also do GYW, together we explore themes like What is Culture? Why do people move? Am I interconnected to the rest of the world if I live in Cork? These and other topics which run through both GYW programmes can really challenge our young participants. Opinions can change greatly for the better over time, I have witnessed huge personal growth among participants in the course of this work.

~Catherine Leahy.

Global Youth Work

Cork Youth Information Centre Cont’d from p.6

Collaboration

We have been part of the Cork Travellers Youth Workers Forum for many years, which affords the opportunity to network with other like minded agencies.

Recently we have been involved in the Cork Community Health Network, again liaising with local agencies, and building a network of youth workers to use our service with their young people.

An exciting development with Comhairle na n’Óg has been happening over the past year. We have been able to give advice on their new website on employment for 15 – 18 year olds and provide information for it. We look forward to continuing and developing this relationship and having feedback from the young people.

Volunteers

I would like to thank all volunteers who helped us during the year especially our French EVS volunteer Anne Silvain, for all her hard work and her contribution to both the YIC and YMCA.

ANTI-BULLYING/ MENTAL HEALTH

Under the auspices of our Heart n Soul and Notalone services we also ran workshops on Anti-Bullying in two schools: Terence McSwiney Secondary School and Sunday’s Well Primary Schools. This is supportive work with DEIS schools on this issue, reinforcing the school’s anti-bullying policy.

We did workshops on Mental Health at St. Aloysius Secondary School, Carrigtwohill and St. Aidan’s Secondary School.

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The past twelve months have moved quickly on the Heart ‘n’ Soul programme. In house it has been delivered in full to STEP 52 and composed of two 6-9 session mini programmes to the Wot! project, outreach work has only involved the Foyer this year. Heart ‘n’ Soul has linked with the YIC in the delivery of their Signposts and Anti-Bullying programmes and so much more outreach work has taken part under this collaboration, particularly in Ashton, Sundays’ Well and Douglas Community Schools.

Heart ‘n’ Soul

Signposts

Since Fruity Thursdays

was introduced what has

emerged is that along with

providing healthy snacks

it creates a lovely healthy

atmosphere where our

participants and staff alike

get to sit side by side and

have informal conversations

and enjoy each others’

company.

A new piece of work that has been developed under Heart ‘n’ Soul is Fruity Thursdays!! Fruity Thursdays as the name suggests involves making fruity snacks available to participants at their mid-morning break on Thursdays. Smoothies are lovingly blended to tempt our young participants to “get some fruit into them!” and a selection of fruits, sometimes nuts and/or seeds are also on offer. This initiative was made possible by Cork City Council funding that was secured last year. Fruity Thursdays kicked off in September and continued up until the last week in April when unfortunately the well ran dry. More funding has been applied for so fingers crossed we will be successful in securing this.

Before Fruity Thursdays was part of our week here at Cork YMCA I envisaged it solely as a health promoting initiative. Eager to make fresh fruit and smoothies freely available as a healthy alternative

to the types of sugary drinks and sugary and fatty snacks that are all too often the usual choice among our participants. The benefits of including fruit and veg in our diets is old news and regularly when delivering Heart ‘n’ Soul nutrition sessions focusing on the food pyramid I would learn that this shelf more than all the others is most likely to be overlooked and the recommendation of 5+ per day totally unobtainable. So I admit I had a narrow focus of trying to urge our participants to just eat some (more) fruit. Since Fruity Thursdays was introduced what has emerged is that along with providing healthy snacks it creates a lovely healthy atmosphere where our participants and staff alike get to sit side by side and have informal conversations and enjoy each others’ company. Thursdays have become my favourite day of the week and I’ve discovered a lot more about the young people with whom I work.

Promoting Healthy Living

This programme aims to help young people to come alongside their peers and help them with any issues they may have, signposting them to professional agencies. These issues include Drugs / Alcohol, Depression / Self harm, Suicide / Bereavement and Body Image, all of which young people unfortunately

face today. We recently had a very successful Creative Morning with some of these students, and had wonderful help from Ground Floor volunteers Zen and Jordan. We also had Isla visit the groups and speak to them about the YMCA counselling service.

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I was expecting that you were gonna tell me how to live my life, but it was actually me learning how to live my life. - Daniel McIntyre (STEP)

“”

Equip-Isla Jeffers and Joy Cantwell Moore

Equip works in franchise with Cork YMCA and seeks to equip God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:12). Work these past 12 months has been wonderful while often challenging. We have felt so privileged to be able to work with a variety of different groups:

• Two 5 week Parenting Programmes with TVG (Traveller Visibility Group)

• Two Suicide Awareness Programmes:

-with Street Pastors

-with STEP and Ground Floor participants

• Two Child Protection Workshops:

-initial training and a follow up session with young leaders from Ground Floor and Monday Night Live.

~Isla Jeffers

Youth Counselling ServiceDaniel gave me permission to use this quote from him given during his eloquent evaluation of his time on the Counselling Service. I am not some guru living the perfect life – if only! – dispensing advice from hallowed ground. Counselling is a shared journey, a walk with someone “in their shoes”, a space to examine, share and grow, a relationship allowing each one to find resolution within themselves.

The Counselling Service has, as always, been busy this year. The ten available weekly sessions have been full and we still carry a waiting list. Clients have been referred from YMCA programmes - STEP,

DION, Ground Floor, WOT! while other spaces were allocated to non YMCA participants.

Issues arising include relationships, drugs and alcohol, self esteem, abuse and suicide ideation.

Those who have gained places on our service have made many positive changes in their lives for which we are thankful. Our service prioritises our own YMCA young people so each client has been involved in another service in the building e.g. STEP, Díon, Ground Floor. This umbrella of care from a number of projects has played a major part in the positive changes in their lives.

Child Protection staff group

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Income 2014 Expenditure 2014 € €General-ETB/DCYA 44146 General-ETB/DCYA 44314STEP Initiatives-DCYA 45110 STEP Initiatives-DCYA 44991Youth Information Centre- DCYA 73041 Youth Information Service- DCYA 70031Sub Total 162297 Sub Total 159336General 50085 General 51928European Voluntary Service 5776 European Voluntary Service 5695New Step 28354 New Step 28354Drugs task Force 31875 Drugs Task force 35872Pakt Account 7335 Pakt Account 13655Sub Total 123425 Sub Total 135504 Total 285722 294840

Operating (Deficit) for the year -9118 Movements on Investments -78 Net(deficit) for the year -9196

FETAC AWARDS

6 STEP participants attained their FETAC Level 5 Work Experience Certificate.

8 STEP participants attained a full FETAC 4 award with another 2 completing between 5 & 7 components

13 participants fully completed their ECDL and a further 7 completed several modules each.

7 LIT participants on track to attain FETAC Level 5 in Youth Leadership.

1 Wot! Participant received FETAC awards in Communication Level 4

6 Wot! participants received First Aid certs & 2 passed Driver Theory Tests.

50 FETAC folders submitted

8 young people now in Further Education or employment.

At the Foyer

FETAC practicals completed by 6. No funding for FETAC tutor for the Theory side.

Programme Participants

Overall Cork YMCA had 460 programme participants and almost 2,500 young people availed themselves of the wide variety of YIC services as the nature of YIC work has changed to become more outreach and group orientated.

One new project, TechSpace, which was launched through the YIC

Outreach to 5 centres and 6 schools.

AchievementsIn the Last Twelve Months

Inside Back Cover

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THANKS TO:

Dept. of Children & Youth Affairs

Cork City Council

Cork ETB

Cork Local Drugs Task Force

Cork Foyer.

Cork Volunteer Centre

Cork Equal and Sustainable Communities Alliance

Dept. of Social Protection

Houston’s

HSE Child Care Team

HSE Health Promotion Unit

Léargas

Mahon Community Development Project

Nasc

NYCI

Sisters of Mercy Fund

Traveller Visibility Group

YMCA Ireland

Ashton School

IPB Insurance Company

AUDITOR:

Hitchmough Kinnear

Sheraton Court, Glasheen Rd.

SOLICITOR

O’Donnell, Breen Walsh and O’Donoghue.

BOARD OF MANAGEMENT

Colin Meikle (Chairman)

Victor Tutty (Treasurer)

Hazel Minion (President)

Charles Payne

John Walsh

Lambert Olupot

Acknowledgements

Contact Us

Back Cover

YMCA Cork11-12 Marlboro St., Cork.reception@ymcacork.net021 4270187 | 021 4273056 Cork YMCA is a registered Charity (CHY 728) and a company limited by guarantee.Cork YMCA is currently in the process of complying with the Governance Code.

Staff Team

Counselling:

Isla Jeffers

díon

John Russell & Geraldine McCarthy (Foyer).

GroundFloor

David Backhouse

Heart n Soul & Global Youth Work

Catherine Leahy

STEP

Áine O’Callaghan

Tish Dempsey

Kay O’ Regan (Mat Cover)

Wot!

Irene Morrissey

Mark O’Donoghue (Mat. cover)

Ian Coughlan

Éadaion Berkeley

Maria O’Kelly

YIC:

Edel Stout

Ber Beville

Louise Blake

Youth Leaders

Lorna Desmond,

Zen Tsgabangu

Faoláin Fleming

Antony Meany

Megan Cronin

George Donegan

Lorna Desmond,

Molly Forsythe

Dan Reck