We hosted the annual Change Makers awards ceremony this week where Ballymun Youthreach students alongside students from Trinity Comprehensive and DCU Social Sciences graduated the ten week programme. The programme run by College Connect through Laurence and Martin from DCU was a great success again this year, the third consecutive year we have undertaken this programme.

Ballymun Youthreach had 12 graduates this year including Alisha and Aaliyah pictured.

Ballymun Youthreach students have been writing a graphic novel with DCU in an exciting four week project. This project brings together Ballymun Youthreach students with DCU trainee teachers, displaced persons and Fighting Words to co-create a graphic book and teaching resource and maybe even a TikTok video or two!

Participants have co-designed resources based on the short film Ordinary Treasures – Objects from Home which was co-created by DCU Irish Refugee Integration Network (IRIN)

A group of students from Ballymun Youthreach have recently completed a fantastic five-week mentoring programme with employees from the Dublin office of the prestigious private investment bank, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH). Spearheaded by senior executives, Cathal Boylan and Noeleen Flynn, a variety of staff from all areas of the firm, gave up their time to mentor and work with the Youthreach students over a period of five weeks. The workshops were held in the offices of BBH in Dublin City Centre, as well as on site in Ballymun Youthreach.  

The first workshop consisted of an introduction to Brown Brothers Harriman and the students learned about the services they provide, as well as a general overview of the financial services industry. There was a fantastic panel discussion where BBH employees spoke about their varied career backgrounds and how everyone can take different routes to get where they are.  

The second workshop focused on how to develop a good CV and how to prepare for a job interview. The students received hands on guidance on crafting an effective resume and how to tailor it to different job opportunities. The BBH mentors conducted mock interviews and provided constructive feedback to help students improve their interview skills and build confidence in articulating their qualifications and experiences.  

The third session delved deeper into exploring different career paths. BBH mentors shared their career journeys, highlighting the importance of transferable skills, and continuous learning. The fourth workshop saw the BBH mentors work with the students on developing effective communications and presentation techniques. They learned how to structure and deliver compelling presentations, focusing on confidence, clarity, engagement and professionalism. The students were then broken up into small groups with an assigned mentor to prepare a business idea or social enterprise. The mentors put a strong emphasis on fostering creativity and innovation with their respective groups.  They would work on their idea and present it in a Dragon’s Den style pitch on the last day. 

The fifth and final workshop saw the students showcase their business ideas to a panel of BBH staff, which included Global Partner and Chairman of BBH Ireland & Luxembourg, Jean Marc Crépin. The judges evaluated the presentations based on creativity, feasibility and presentation skills. They were very impressed with the students’ ideas and provided great constructive feedback to everyone as well as selecting an overall winning team. The session finished with a celebration of the whole mentoring programme.  

The Mentoring programme was a great success, and the students learned a huge amount from the experience. Youthreach is very grateful to the team at Brown Brothers Harriman for organizing the collaboration and for giving up their time and expertise to help the students hone and develop their skills.  

We recieved photos from our visit with An Taoiseach Michael Martin last July in the Axis Centre, Ballymun. Thanks to Aifric in the Axis for the photos.

The Customer Service group recently travelled to the W5 science gallery in Belfast as part of their prize from the NYCI STEAM event in November in DCU.

 

There was also a trip to the 3D Printing showcase in the RDS and a trip to the Inovation Lab in UCD with Chris Darling from Precious Plastics.

Ballymun Youthreach came to the end of their two year cycle with the National Youth Council, Castel DCU and the Science Federation Ireland with a showcase in the Helix, DCU attended by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Caroline Conroy and the head of DCU, Daire Keogh. The students showcased their many projects from the two years which they have developed with Alisha – the submarine, the ater filters and various 3D printed frames all took pride of place. The event was a huge success and attended by 10 Youthreach centres.

 

 

It was a lovely morning in the Mansion House for the Lord Mayor’s Awards where the 2022 awards were presented to Eddie O’Donnell, Erin McKenna and Ruben Bechian.

Unable to attend on the day were Luke Kenny, Nathan Nolan and Margo Vorobei. Eddie even entertained the assembled crowd with a great rendition of ‘The Fields of Athenry’ which was extremely well recieved.

 

 

 

It was a fantastic annual Youthreach sports day at the National Sports Arena this year with plenty of fabulous events. Ballymun Youthreach performed brilliantly in all categories with our own  Chelsea Quinn winning ‘female athlete of the event’ – well done to all the competitors for a great event.

Ballymun Youthreach were delighted to attend in person the annual Youthreach cake and craft fair after a two year hiatus. The competition hosted in Crumlin college was attended by Group C and our winners were Katie Sweeney, Jessica Dempsey, Shane Rainsford and Erica Davison. Well done to our winners and all our entrants who submitted fabulous work.

We were delighted to receive a visit from Minister Simon Harris to Ballymun Youthreach as part of the launch of the CDETB Inaugural Review.

The launch included speeches from Minister Harris, CDETB CEO Christy Duffy and FET directors Ann Gilton and Blake Hodkinson. Minister Harris then completed a tour of Ballymun Youthreach where he visited the various classrooms and chatted to some of our students and staff. We would like to thank the Minister’s office for taking the time to tour our centre and for his kind words of encouragement. We would also like to congratulate Shanice Foy who received her QQI Level 4 awards representing all Youthreach students who have been unable to be presented with their awards during the lockdown and Craig Ivers for his participation in the student research document.