The Foróige Citizenship Programme has been core to Foróige’s work for over 40 years. The Foróige Youth Citizenship Programme in partnership with Aldi Ireland is a youth development programme that empowers young people to use their talents and initiative to make a positive difference to the world around them.
The young people from the LEAF Project (Letterkenny) took part in the Foróige Citizenship Programme in 2016. They assessed the needs in their community and looked at their own civic responsibility. As part of the Programme they decided to clean up an area in Killylastin, Letterkenny near their homes. They identified that there was a lot of broken glass bottles and litter in an area where small children played. This area is a ‘short-cut’ for people living in the area. Mothers with prams and young children on bikes were getting punctures and small cuts as a result of the huge amount of broken glass on the ground. There was also a lot of graffiti in the area.
The LEAF Project young people decided they wanted to host a ‘Clean Up’ day on the 25th August 2016. Jane McLean, Youth Justice Worker with Foróige said “The day was very successful and the young people (with a little help) cleaned up the area, scrubbed graffiti and filled seven refuse sacks with litter and glass from the small area. The young people brought great energy, enthusiasm and fun to the day and put a lot of effort into the programme. They wanted to demonstrate that young people their age can play a positive role in their community and begin to change perceptions.”
Jane McLean and young people Olivia McGinley and Jaime Gallagher would like to thank the following people for helping with the ‘Clean Up’; Michael Murphy (Michael Murphy Sports), Patrick McGlynn (Juvenile Liaison Officer), Garda Maeve Logue and Garda Anne Marie McMenamin (Community Policing Unit). We would also like to thank Martin Roarty from the Donegal County Council for providing materials.
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For further information please contact:
Helena Clarke, Marketing & Communications Officer with Foróige
01-6301732 / 087-6325138
About Foróige
Foróige is the leading youth organisation in Ireland. The charity works with over 50,000 young people and 5,500 adult volunteers annually, through a network of more than 600 youth clubs & cafés, 150 targeted projects and national programmes such as Entrepreneurship (NFTE), Health & Wellbeing, Citizenship and Entrepreneurship.
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