Youth Via Youth Press Issue 1 | Growth

Issue 1 | December 27th, 2019

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A YOUTH-LED NEWSPAPER STRIVING TO LISTEN TO AND REPRESENT THE YOUNG VOICES OF LAOIS

Hi there, and welcome to the very first issue of Youth Work Ireland Laois’ brand new online newspaper, Youth Via Youth Press, centred around the theme of Growth! It has been a long few months of weekly meetings, promoting and deadlines, but myself and the team are so excited to introduce you to a completely youth-led project that has worked hard to showcase the voices of young people around Laois to the best of our ability.

Back in August when I first proposed the idea for this whirlwind of a project to Elaine, one of our fantastic youth workers, it was more of a fever dream (merely referred to as a newsletter at the time, too) than anything I imagined would be materialised anytime soon. It was the result of my presence in countless youth groups over the years, as well as my desire to leave something behind when I eventually move on from being a young person in this space that inspired the idea. More than anything, though, this project came about because of the young people in Laois wanting to show off their talents,

skills and the passions they have for life. They want to be heard, and so they will be, by you, the reader, who may wish to learn and read about young life in Laois as well as some of the things that occur on that top floor in the centre of Portlaoise, renowned as the youth café.

The theme of Growth for our first issue comes from the team’s desire to show how far they, as well as countless other members of the youth café and beyond, have grown as individuals and young people as a collective in the past year. Inside, you will find articles on some of the groups that take place within the café, projects undertaken by wonderful art groups, and many more pieces contributed by our team and some of the young people of Laois that have all done an amazing job at making this issue such a fascinating and fun one to create and read. All of these pieces carefully tie in with our theme, and truly do justice in showing just how talented this county’s young people are.

From the bottom of mine and the team’s hearts, we hope you enjoy!

Charlotte McNulty

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MEET THE TEAM & OUR CONTRIBUTERS

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ART

AN ITRODUCTION TO OUR DROP-IN SERVICES

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LUCK OUT: LGBT+ YOUNG LIFE IN LAOIS

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SEASONAL SNAPS

ARTS & CRAFTS WITH THE AFTERSCHOOLERS

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STAFF INTERVIEW

THE GUEST SECTION

CONTACT INFORMATION

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The Team Anna Lee Dowling Chief Public Relations Officer, 18

As PRO, I love connecting with others and admiring their work. I’m so excited for you to see the talents of some amazing young people! I hope you enjoy our first issue!

Nathan Dowling Junior Public Relations Officer, 16

I’m one of the PROs on this very newspaper, which means lots of behind the scenes work and interacting with you guys online. I hope you enjoy our first issue and issues to come!!

Kayleigh (Mac) McGrath Writer, 17

I’ve always been very passionate about writing and journalism, and I’m really ecstatic about being able to contribute an article to the first issue! I hope you enjoy mine and the team’s hard work.

Aaron Mitchell Writer, 17

I was very excited to get involved in this project as I love writing. My favourite thing that I’ve written was my article on youth workers for GCN (Gay Community News).

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Marta Kozakiewicz Artist & Logo Artist, 15

I live in Portlaoise, and I’m proud to be on this amazing team and I’m excited to represent this youth-led project!!

Jill Garvey Artist & Cover Artist, 16

I love being involved with my community and other people, and I’ve been doing art my entire life so it’s a perfect combination for me! I also want to admire the artwork and writing of others as people never fail to impress me!

Katie Dunne Photographer, 18

I’m in sixth year and am interested in film, art and photography.

Bridget Reidy Dundon Photographer, 13

I absolutely adore photography, especially photos of nature! I’m so excited to see your work and for you to see mine!

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Contributors Niamh Kelly, Splatter & Splodge Art Groups, the Afterschoolers, Luck Out & Drop-In members, and the amazing team of Youth Workers & Volunteers at Youth Work Ireland Laois.

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Art Youth Work Ireland Laois' youth cafĂŠ has two distinct art groups known as Splatter, for older members, and Splodge, for younger members. Both groups have created wonderful pieces for this issue, the theme of Growth inspiring their work.

Splatter

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Splodge “This group has made a project for an upcoming exhibition. Its theme was ‘If I could change anything in the world, what would I change?’. Wanting to merge this with the theme of the newspaper’s theme for this issue, I came up with the idea to make a tree and have others in the group contribute.

As it’s around Christmas time I then decided to change it to a Christmas tree. We had everyone draw representations of their ideas and pinned them to the tree.”

Marta, the leader of this project.

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Article ProgressIn: Taking a look at the youth café’s Drop-In services and how they have progressed, grown and what they have to offer still.

By Kayleigh (Mac) McGrath

One of the staples of our youth café here in Portlaoise is our Drop-In services. Drop-Ins are two groups where young people can come into the youth café at any time between 2 and 7pm to meet with friends, cook, play games, and use the countless resources that the space has to offer.

Drop-Ins started in January of 2019 to take up the time that Comhairle na nÓg

originally used for their training. What was at first a space for first years on a Friday soon became a group that took place on not only Fridays but Saturdays as well. It also started to cater to older young people!

Ultimately, they grew to be pretty popular with local young people. In August of 2019, Drop-Ins were split into two age groups; Fridays being first to third years and Saturdays transition year and above.

"We had four or five young people coming into Drop-Ins at the start and then it grew to having sixty-five names on a list."

Elaine Boyle, Youth Worker I have a very positive experience with Drop-

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Ins, but I don’t want this to be solely my opinion. So, I looked to the young people of Youth Work Ireland Laois to get their insight and see what makes Drop-Ins so important to us.

The majority of young people, both in the younger and older group, said that they discovered Drop-Ins from a friend or family member. Others learned from being part of another group within the youth café, such as Luck Out or Afterschool. A few of the younger Drop-In members also pointed out that they had siblings in Drop-Ins who had encouraged them to join the service.

The main question I asked when I was conducting these interviews with the younger members was ‘What makes DropIns important to young people?’. I got a variety of answers from both youth workers and young people.

“I honestly feel more comfortable in DropIns than ever I thought I would.”

Evan, age 13 One common thing that I found amongst the younger Drop-In members was the enjoyment they found in the resources and activities in the youth café, like the group cooking and the games that are available to them. One young person I spoke to mentioned how the space is laid back enough to be able to relax, chat and play games with your friends, but has also shown them valuable skills such as budgeting and cooking. Others mentioned how it was just nice to have a space to be able to relax in after a long week.

“At the end of the week it’s something to look forward to!”

Fionn, age 15 When I asked the young people what they would change about the Drop-In services or the youth café in general, I received a lot of the same answer; a long pause followed by “Uh, I don’t think so!”. It’s nice to see that the younger Drop-In members have had such a positive experience in the youth café!

A lot of the members of the older Drop-In have been part of Youth Work Ireland Laois for a considerable amount of time; and with time, comes a lot of opinions! This isn’t a particularly negative thing however, but I found that in my interviews with the older Drop-In participants, they had a lot more to say about what the Drop-In services meant to them.

They had very much the same positive feelings towards Drop-In as the younger group. They deeply appreciate the opportunity to have their own space and to relax, but also the responsibility there is with cooking, shopping and cleaning in the youth café, or as they said “learning to pull your own weight”. A lot of the young people found that since joining the Drop-In services, that they had matured because of the responsibilities given to them and the group environment that they are now a part of.

I asked the older group about their feelings on the split within the Drop-In services. The general consensus was that although they found the separation was a little strange at

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first, that it actually had a positive impact within the youth café. They found that they feel that they’re able to have more important conversations on things that affect people in their age group that they couldn’t have with younger people.

“Initially it was weird not having people around, but I know they’re still okay.

They’re comfortable in their space.”

Saoirse, age 17 After conducting these interviews and observing the young people in their respective Drop-In groups, I came to a conclusion on why the Drop-In services are so important to our youth café and the young people in it. Drop-Ins are their safe space, their escape, their time to relax. Personally, I think they’re important because they provide so many young people with important and valuable resources and life lessons. If I had my way, I’d have a Drop-In service in every youth café, because I think all young people deserve that safe space.

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Youth Via Youth Press is very much a project focused on young people and young voices. We would not be able to maintain this focus, however, without the amazing staff in Youth Work Ireland Laois who work relentlessly to help ensure that young people have a space to use their voice in the first place.

With this in mind, we would like to dedicate a section in each issue of our newspaper to an interview with one of our Youth Workers or Volunteers, in an effort to celebrate their work and get to know them more as individuals.

For our first issue, we chose to interview Anna, who works as Admin in the youth café but also occasionally volunteers on trips for some of our youth groups, such as Girl Talk. We owe a huge thank you to her for taking the time to sit down with us. Interviewer: Aaron Mitchell.

When did you first join Youth Work Ireland Laois?

I joined in December 2017 as a part of a Tús back-to-work scheme.

Do you enjoy the youth work side of things?

Yes, it’s great. I’m kind of feeding off the energy like a suckypus.

Do you think you have grown or changed much since you joined here?

Yes, you would be a lot less quick to make your mind up about people; you can’t judge people straight off.

What is your favourite memory from here, if you have one?

I really enjoyed the Mini-Marathon; that was a great experience, the whole day. I’m just sorry that there wasn’t a little more of team building beforehand.

No matter what you do it’s easier if there is a bit of contact there.

Who’s your favourite Youth Worker?

Elaine, of course.

Hear that Elaine, you got your shoutout! So, out of all the youth groups, you probably work with Girl Talk the most?

It’s not so much as I work with the group itself, but I gave the idea of healthy lifestyle. I thought it would be a great idea as I think young people – not just girls – have a lot of problems with self-image and I thought it would be quite nice to do that.

You originally joined from the back-to-work-scheme, but what has kept you coming back?

It’s just great. I like the energy around the place and everybody’s nice and the young people come in – it’s a nice atmosphere, and it’s nice to see people enjoying themselves.

Finally, because you’ve been here a while, do you find it sad when you see people grow out of the place and leave?

Yeah, I do, but I suppose it’s all part of life and when you move on to college, it’s totally different. It’s not the same as school, it’s a lot less structured so you have to get used to all that – which didn’t suit me at all!

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differed completely. There were those who believed Luck Out was a space that allows communication between LGBT+ youth. There were others who saw it as a space to openly express themselves when you can’t anywhere else.

It can even simply be a support system, a place you can go after a hard week, where people will just listen. But out of everyone I asked, not one person failed to mention that Luck Out is a space where they feel safe.

Luck Out is Youth Work Ireland Laois’ LGBT+ youth group that has been in action since June 2017. From those who wear their labels proud, people who choose to keep things quieter, those questioning and those who are just there to offer support – this group has a place for everyone.

This piece goes into detail about just what the group is about, as well as why it fits so well with this issue’s theme, and is written by a valuable member of the group.

I was twelve when I admitted to myself that I liked girls. I still remember the first time I said the words out loud, and how scary it felt. I’ve come out many times since then, and every time it’s gotten a little bit less scary. However, the times that stand out to me are the times that were shared. There were times when someone else’s story allowed me to share mine, but there were also times when my story did that for someone else. Moments like this can be important for a lot of people when they begin their journey of coming out, because sometimes, it’s easier to relate to someone else’s story than to share your own.

Before I joined Luck Out, I didn’t have that. I didn’t have people to relate to, or a place where I could truly be myself. But Luck Out gave me a community where I could learn from and identify with a diverse group of amazing people. It gave me a space where I could learn about myself and about the LGBT+ community; a space where I could avail of opportunities I never would have dreamed of before.

Luck Out means a lot of things to a lot of people, but overall, I would say it is a safe space. When I asked other members what the group meant to them, their responses

One thing I heard that I think sums us up perfectly is that this group is a family. Everything we have achieved, experienced, or fought for has brought us closer together.

We learn from each other, support each other and help each other to grow; both as members of Luck Out and individuals outside of it. In my opinion, the most important thing the group does for us is give us the opportunities and resources to grow as people, regardless of our sexuality or identity.

This year, we raised money to go to two prides, by throwing an extremely successful table quiz. At Dublin Pride, we were invited to the BeLonG To Breakfast, where we got to meet LBGT+ youth from all across the country before marching alongside them in the parade. We were also invited to the first ever Carlow Pride, where we marched and formed a relationship with young LGBT+ people from the area.

We were also lucky to have organised the first LGBT+ ball that was open to all youth groups across Ireland in 2018. It was attended by youth groups in Carlow and Waterford, and gained recognition with youth groups nationwide. We also inspired others to follow suit, with some groups even planning to organise their own LGBT+ Ball in the future.

As much as Luck Out has helped us to grow, and in itself has grown alongside us, there is always more we can do more we can strive for. The members of this youth group have a lot of plans and ideas for its future that will help us to reach more people like us who haven’t been given the opportunities and resources that we have.

We want to encourage people to come forward and to find somewhere they can be themselves, even if they’re still figuring out who that is. We want to create safe spaces, and a family for as many people as possible, as well as inspiring others to do the same. In the words of one of our members, we need more Luck Outs; more spaces where people can grow and learn together. Where people can be who they are, because everyone deserves their story to be heard, and sometimes that means relating to someone else’s.

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Seasonal Snaps t

Taken by Katie Dunne

Taken by Bridget Reidy Dundon

Taken by Katie Dunne

For this section, our two wonderful photographers have gone on a mission to intertwine this issue’s theme with the stark difference between the natural and industrial world.

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3D Paper Snowflakes What You’ll Need: • • • • •

Pencil Ruler Scissors Glue 2 sheets of different coloured paper/card

Step 1: Draw six 7cmx7cm squares on your two sheets of paper (three boxes per page).

Step 2: Carefully cut out all the squares.

Step 3: Fold a square diagonally, then diagonally again so that the paper is in the shape of a triangle.

Repeat this step for the remaining squares.

Step 4: Take each triangle and make two cuts along one of its sides (the first one near the base should be a bit longer than the second).

Step 5: Unfold the triangles so that they now look like squares again.

Step 6: The square should now have small sections from the slits that can be folded.

Gently fold the smallest set closest to the centre backwards and glue the ends to the back of the square. Fold the next set backwards too, but instead glue the ends to each other. Fold the final set forwards and glue the ends together.

Step 7: Repeat Step 6 until you have six 3D cylinder-like shapes. Finally, glue one end of each one to each other to create your 3D snowflake!

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This newspaper is all about hearing the voices of young people in Laois, as well as giving them a space to use that voice in whatever form they see fit. Keeping this purpose at the forefront of our work always, we have opened a Guest Section for each issue which will allow young people from all over Laois – whether a member of Youth Work Ireland Laois or not – to send in their work and art centred around our themes, and have a chance to show off their passions to countless other young people.

We hope that this way, every voice has a chance to be heard without having to be a part of the Youth Via Youth Press team itself. With this in mind, we present to you some amazingly talented and passionate young people!

Arjeta Kovaci, 13.

What is Growth? Growth to me is where you develop your human body, whether this is physically or mentally or both is up to you. In my opinion, it’s both. When I think of physically growing, I think of gaining or losing weight, getting taller or shorter, or even getting fit and making sure you are healthy inside as well that you are eating the right foods so you can grow. Mentally growing, in my opinion, is where you are mentally stable and are happy with yourself. Also, mentally growing to me is to learn new things, challenge yourself and develop your brain. I think to be mentally growing you should be physically growing and vice versa. So basically, they are partners in crime.

Divine Atanda, 12, lives in Portlaoise; ‘I got this idea from seeing nature as trees began to grow.’

They keep talking about change and growth and reaching the skies but as I climb something screams inside.

The tree that grew before spreading its roots toppled before its blossom tree fruits.

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Chloe Almazan, 13.

I was created when everything was dark and cold.

Hello, I am Earth, I am about 4.5 billion years old.

How was I made? No one knows.

In my early stages I had life and I was thriving then a meteor hit me and everything was dying.

Next comes my ice age; that was when my temperature was very low and all of me was covered in snow.

Scrat never got his acorn.

Then comes the Romans and they conquered half of the Earth and tiny pieces of paper called money was worth a lot.

Now it’s 2019 and we are slowly killing the Earth.

Every year I’m turning less green see you in 2020.

Oh flowers, oh flowers stand tall and standing out oh flowers, oh flowers it seems that’s all life is about.

With all the needs, you grow for seeds with all the bees, and all the trees.

You fill the space, with all your grace, I hold you in a vase in a sunny place.

Oh flowers, oh flowers don’t be done oh flowers, oh flowers you didn’t just grow for fun.

Isabella Smith, 12, originally from Dublin. She got the idea for her poem by watching her mother gardening.

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Look at How We’ve Grown

Our planet, our home, is only a small blue speck in the grand scheme of the universe. However, we are more than an insignificant speck of dust; we are a wonderful, complicated civilization, always moving and living, evolving, forever testing our limits. Ever since day one, ever since we came into the blinking, stumbling into the sun, we have always tried to improve our world.

As our hands first touched red flickering tongues of fire, as we learned to grow food and as towns and villages began to grow little by little, we knew that one day we could be able to reach every corner of our world. Soon, tiny isolated nations grew into great and powerful empires, stomping across the globe and conquering every mound of land they came upon. As centuries passed and empires fell, wars were fought, plagues made their way through thousands of people and people began to think for themselves. New thoughts were born and soon everything was questioned. God, the monarchy, space, the meaning of our lives - everything was questioned, and we were given so many answers.

And once again, time passed. Art, poetry and literature were created. New systems of governments rose and began to branch across our world. Two wars were fought that changed our world and hundreds of innocent lives were lost to the selfishness of others. Soon people began to receive rights that they should have had all along.

Protests and riots flooded the streets, shouting messages of peace, of freedom. It was age of revolution, an age where a man walked on the moon, an age were us humans discovered we were the masters of our own faith.

And now here I am, on my tiny fraction of Earth, thinking about how the growth of our world is neither a good nor bad thing. It simply happens, it’s inevitable. Soon, maybe we’ll reach out to the stars and spread across the universe. Whether it will be a glorious moment or the start of an infestation, we may never know.

Forever shall us humans grow, until the sun’s final days. For better or for worse, we will continue to learn and think and love and fight and hate, forever will we continue to grow.

Carly Fagan, 14, lives in Portlaoise & is in third year.

She is a massive nerd, enjoys writing, reading and binge-watching Netflix.

We start as a baby, our journey begins.

Growing and changing, from learning to crawl or walk, changing to learn to talk or sing.

Change is mostly good we grow to be understood.

But in these changes, we must remember who we are Kacey Hogan, 13.

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Caoimhe Rothwell’s ‘Daisies’, 12, lives in Timahoe.

Kiran Fatima, 14, is a firstyear student and lives in Portlaoise. She likes reading and drawing.

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Email editor.youthnews@ywilaois.com for any inquiries you may have