Promoting Youth Development

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Promoting Community Engagement


What's happening at YMCA

13 February 2019

YMCA Celebrates 175 years

This is an important year for the YMCA movement as it celebrates 175 years of service to young people. To celebrate a major event is planned for the Excel centre London in August. In Ireland this is also an important year as we join with our colleagues in YMCA Dublin to mark its 170th anniversary […]

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10 December 2018

YMCA Practitioners Conference

Great to have so many YMCA staff and volunteers attend the recent Practitioners’ Conference in Swords where the main speaker was Prof Laura Lundy from Queens University. The main focus was on looking at the Lundy model of youth participation and reflection on how it is being used in YMCA programmes across the island. Follow […]

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8 November 2018

YMCA Young Leaders Meet in Greenhill

Young leaders from local YMCAs throughout the island met recently in Greenhill YMCA Outdoor Learning Centre to share their experiences of being a young leader in the YMCA. They also looked at developing a Youth Charter for the movement before looking at ways in which their voice could be heard more effectively in governance and […]

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19 October 2018

STEP 30 Celebrations

YMCA’s STEP programme has just celebrated a remarkable milestone recently when it completed 30 years of serving young people.  Young people, parents, trustees and staff joined events in Letterkenny, Dublin and Cork to hear the stories of young people who have been involved in programmes over the past three decades. A highlight of the celebrations […]

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10 September 2018

YMCA Young Reporters Interview Deputy UN Secretary General

YMCA’s Young Reporters interviewed  Amina JMohammed UN Deputy Secretary General on her recent visit to Ireland as part of her campaign to promote the Sustainable Development Goals among young people. A podcast of the interview as part of the YMCA ConversationZ series will be made available shortly

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21 August 2018

Learning from Exchanges

International exchanges  can provide valuable learning experiences for young people and for organisations. In this blog for Leargas, James Bilson Coordinator of YMCA STEP programme in Cobh  reflects on some of the learning from a recent partnership with an organisation in Iceland.

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19 July 2018

World Council of YMCAs meets in Thailand

The 19th YMCA World Council council met in July in Chiang Mai in Thailand. The action packed week included powerful presentations and inputs from YMCA Change Agents who are young people who have been involved in strategic leadership development opportunities. The long-term strategy for the World YMCA continues to be in youth empowerment. Some of the other highlights […]

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6 June 2018

Launch of YMCA/YWCA m-power youth project

Young people, staff and representatives of YMCA Ireland, YWCA Ireland, partner agencies and funders attended the official launch of the m-power youth project in City of Belfast YMCA. The m-power launch event was part of our celebrations to mark Founder’s Day on 6th June 1844, the date when George Williams established the YMCA in London. […]

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10 May 2018

VOLT ( Volunteer Outdoor Learning & Training) Initiative

The VOLT initiative, is a partnership between YMCA Greenhill and the NI Education Authority which will provide opportunities for young people to be trained as Outdoor Learning workers over a two year period.  The Programme begins August 2018 and will provide Level 3 training in youth work and a range of National Governing Body awards in […]

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13 April 2018

YMCA Youthquake

Young leaders from YMCA in Ireland participated in the first ‘YMCA Youthquake’ event hosted by YMCA England and Wales on 27 March. Young people, including representatives from YMCA England & Wales and YMCA Scotland were challenged to develop innovative solutions to mental health issues using design thinking methodologies.  Participants solutions will feed into the YMCA […]

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