Each short clip in the video series can be used as a standalone resource to raise discussions within youth groups, or in conjunction with the free online resource Access All Areas: A Diversity Toolkit in order to embed diversity within youth groups.
This project was funded by the Equality Authority.
It isn’t always easy to say what equality is. In this video we hear what young people had to say.
Start a conversation about the changes people in your group would like to see in the world around them and the steps we can take to get there.
Try doing the activity ‘Stepping Up’ to explore inequalities and how they affect different people.
To learn more about embedding equality in your youth group go to Chapter 1 in Access All Areas Diversity Toolkit
The Being Well group from Hi Rez Youth Group, Bray talk about mental health. They describe how they have built their capacity to be of support to other young people and to promote a positive message about mental health.
To learn more about working with young people with a mental health issue: go to our Diversity Toolkit Access All Areas Chapter 7 Working with Young People with Mental Health Issues
Start a conversation about what mental health means to the group of young people you work with. Similar to a five a day for physical health, draw up a “five a day” for promoting positive mental health. Ask your group to discuss what 5 things they can do each day to keep them mentally well.
Recognise the work you are currently doing to support young people’s mental health in your organisation and continue to promote positive mental health.
To learn more about promoting mental health and wellbeing with young people, check out Mindout – A mental health promotion programme offered by the National Youth Health Programme.
In this video Domhnall, a youth worker from Finglas Youth Resource Centre and Michael Collins, a youth worker from Pavee Point talk about their work with young Travellers. They discuss Traveller culture and what they think it’s important for youth workers to know. Michael and Domhnall work as peer workers; each support the other as they work with a number of Traveller groups together.
How to use this video
Watch the video to start a conversation about engaging with young Travellers. Together with your colleagues or youth group discuss what you could do to increase your knowledge about Traveller culture. Explore how Travellers and settled people could work more closely together. Build links between Travellers and settled people in your area. Contact your local Traveller organisation. Go to www.itmtrav.ie. Support Travellers to become involved as volunteer’s and youth workers within your organisations
Help to instill pride amongst Travellers and in Traveller culture by celebrating Traveller Pride Week . Get involved in one of the events that are happening or build Traveller Pride Week into your programme of work. Traveller Pride Week is held every year to celebrate the contribution that Travellers make to Irish Society. It brings together the 7 National Traveller Organisations. The Traveller Pride Awards recognise the achievements of Travellers across a range of categories including Arts/Culture, Music, Sport, Youth, Education, Enterprise, and Community Development. Coverage of the awards can be found on the Irish Traveller Movements facebook page and on the website www.itmtrav.ie. Traveller Pride usually runs over two weeks in May.
Do activities that promote inclusion and challenge discrimination and stereotyping. Put together a collage of Travellers who are well known or who have won awards (Kelly Mongan, John Joe Nevin, actor Michael Collins, Traveller Pride award winner Mary Maugham etc.) together with images representing Traveller specific skills. Read and discuss writings and opinion pieces written by Travellers in newspapers and journals. Invite a Traveller to your group to talk about aspects of Traveller culture. Think about nominating a young Traveller/s for next year’s Traveller Pride Awards.
To learn more about working with young Travellers, book an information session with Pavee Point. You can learn more about working with young Travellers by going to our online Diversity Toolkit Access All Areas: Chapter 4
In this video the MUI (My Unique Identity) group from Carlow talk about the value of having their own LGBTI+ youth group and the support they get from their youth worker, Leanne. They discuss some of the issues that they have experienced and what they think is important for other youth workers and young people to know.
Watch the video to start a conversation about engaging with young LGBTI+ people or with LGBTI+ issues. Together with your colleagues or youth group discuss what you could do to increase your knowledge about LGBTI+ issues and how to make your youth space more LGBTI+ friendly. Use the momentum of LGBTI+ Pride week (in the summer months) and BelongTo’s Stand Up campaigns (November) to do something to raise awareness of and celebrate diversity in your youth group and community. Maybe start by going on to BeLonG To’s website www.belongto.org.
Do activities that promote having pride in one’s identity, including LGBTI+ pride. Perhaps put together a collage of LGBTI+ people who are well known to display on your wall.
To learn more about working with young LGBT people Download our online Diversity Toolkit Access All Areas Chapter 3
In this video young people from minority ethnic backgrounds talk about being involved in youth work activities and the support they get from this. Grace Walsh from Voluntary Services International talks about her experience of working with young people from diverse cultural backgrounds and what she thinks is important for other youth workers to know.
Watch the video to start a conversation about engaging with young people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Together with your colleagues or youth group discuss what you could do to increase your knowledge about cultural issues and how to make your youth space more welcoming and inclusive. Do activities that promote diversity and tackle racism. A list of resources on inclusion activities is available on www.intercultural.ie/resources.
Take action on racism in your community. Create a poster or video to raise awareness on how to report racist incidences. See www.ireport.ie and talk to your local Gardaí
To learn more about working with young people from minority ethnic backgrounds download the relevant chapter from our Diversity Toolkit: Chapter 2 – Working with young people from a minority ethnic background – all ireland.pdf
This video portrays young people considering their career options in the context of gender conditioning and the various roles we traditionally expect for ourselves. The video features actors from Dublin Youth Theatre.
Watch the video to start a conversation about gender conditioning together with your colleagues or youth group. Discuss what you could do to increase awareness around this issue. Do activities or have discussions that challenge gender stereotyping.
Talk to young people about their life choices, about identifying and reaching their own personal dreams, and achieving their potential even in the face of the current difficulties.
To learn more about working to challenge gender stereotyping and take a gender conscious approach to your work go to Chapter 11 in our online Diversity Toolkit Access All Areas
This video portrays young people and youth workers taking part in an integrated dance project. It allows viewers to look beyond the limitations that we might have imagined for people with disabilities and inspires us to think beyond disability to the variety of abilities we can all share.
Watch the video to start a conversation with your colleagues and youth group about working with young people with a physical or sensory disability. Discuss what you could do to increase awareness around this issue and include more people with a disability in your group. Start by looking at how you can adapt your current activities to include people who have a physical disability, have sight loss or who are Deaf – make it a group activity to adapt or devise your favourite activities.
Explore this topic more by taking part in workshops; talk to Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) about their workshops that challenge attitudes, develop skills and encourages change for those who work with young people. More info from youth@iwa.ie. Build links with disability organisations and arts and sports groups that run accessible programmes (IWA, Irish Deaf Kids, Irish Deaf Youth, National Council of the Blind, arts, theatre and sports groups etc)
To learn more about working with young people with a physical or sensory disability download the relevant chapter of our Access All Areas toolkit: Chapter 5 – working with young people with a physical disability, have sight loss or who are Deaf
The video portrays the voices and experiences of young mothers from The Base Youth Centre, Ballyfermot together with their Youth Worker, Tracey Skerrit. The actor is Katie Mahon, a member from Dublin Youth Theatre.
Watch this video to start a conversation about young parenthood together with your colleagues and youth group. Discuss what you could do to increase awareness around this issue and explore how to include and support young parents living in your community.
Talk to young people about their life choices, about identifying and reaching their potential no matter what their circumstances are. Do activities and have discussions that challenge misconceptions about young parents. Direct young parents you are working with to this helpful website www.teenparents.ie/iopen24/
To learn more about including and working with young parents download the relevant chapter of our Access All Areas toolkit: Chapter 9 – working with young parents – all Ireland.pdf
This animated video features young people with different learning abilities explaining the communication style that best suits them and how youth workers can make instructions easier to understand. The voices are provided by actors from Dublin Youth Theatre.
Watch the video to start a conversation with your colleagues and youth group about learning abilities and disabilities. Do an activity to discover everyone’s preferred learning style and share this with everyone in the group. Remember that people will also tend to give instruction or pass on information in their own preferred learning style. Work out ways to present information in as many different ways as possible in your youth setting so that everyone is included.
Raise awareness about how we all have our own way of learning, understanding and communicating. Discuss how having a difficulty using one style often results in developing greater skills in a different style of communicating (People with literacy difficulties often develop exceptional memory and storytelling skills). Draw on all the styles and skills of members of your group. You can find a basic learning style test on www.brainboxx.co.uk/. This will test strengths in just 3 key areas so you will also need to go beyond this test to discuss and understand things such as concentration, coordination, social difficulties, personal learning challenges etc.
To learn more about working with young people with learning disabilities: Download: Access All Areas – Chapter 6 – working with young people with a learning disability.pdf
The video portrays extracts from a poem written as part of an intergenerational project at Rahoon Youth Project, Galway. It beautifully captures the process of ageing that touches all generations – what we call the life cycle approach.
It was designed to help you to start a conversation about intergenerational work in your community. For more on intergenerational youth work go to our online Diversity Toolkit: Access All Areas Chapter 13 – Working across the generations
This resource was part-financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund through the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation managed by the Special EU Programmes Body.
