Covid-19 Support and Resources

 

The Covid-19 outbreak represents a major challenge for the youth work sector.
It changes the way we all must work. With that in mind, we’re bringing together resources, training and advice to support you through this time.

Below we have collected sector specific information, but your first point of reference for the latest information on current public health measures should be gov.ie

See our news feed for information on extended deadlines, new calls and funding, and other ongoing Covid-19 updates.

See our training and events feed for training opportunities and events tailored in response to Covid-19 related restrictions.

Covid-19 Updates

Covid-19 guidance update: 02.02.22

Please see below a link to the letter from the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman,  formally withdrawing the Guidance for Youth […]

Covid-19 guidance update: 22.10.21

Today, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) have announced changes to the Covid-19 Guidance for Youth Organisations. One key change that was […]

NYCI research highlights continued impact of Covid-19 on youth work services and young people’s engagement

Sixty-nine per cent of youth work sector organisations saw a decrease in the number of young people engaging with their services, with 80,000 less young people […]

NYCI Training and Events

Youth Organisations

Information and resources to help organisations in the youth work sector adapting to the challenges posed by Covid-19.

Youth Work in an Online Setting during Covid-19

This guidance document for youth workers and those working with young people looks at youth work in an online setting during Covid-19 under the following headings:

  • What is Digital Youth Work?
  • Moving Offline Youth Work Online – Digital Youth Work Best Practice
  • Media Literacy And Online Safety
  • Consent

NYCI is part of this International Partnership on Digital Youth Work which includes many training resources, best practice videos and guidelines on Digital Youth Work and advice on online youth work.

Such as Digital youth work self-assessment
A tool to help reflect on attitudes and values on digitalisation and digital youth work.

Social media plan
Framework to help youth workers draft a social media plan for their organisation.

A youth work matrix of risks related to online-usage and digitalization
This method tackles the need for knowledge of potential risks, as well as of ways to contain risks at an individual or collective level on young peoples’ online usage and digitalisation. This is an essential area of educational work with children and adolescents, and “Safety” is also a separate area among the training needs in the report of the EU expert group “Developing digital youth work”.

What on Earth is Digital Youth Work? (zip file)
A fun and engaging introductory workshop to get youth workers thinking about the role of digital in young people’s lives. It helps us understand the broad definition of digital youth work.
Type: Workshop plan and resources.

This NYCI resource was created to support those who work with young people in all youth work organisations who often share similar concerns, risks and challenges to ensure all young people, staff, volunteers are safe online. However, each organisation should consider how the issues raised in this resource should be adapted to their own local context and what will work most effectively in their practice.

NYCI is on the steering group of Media Literacy Ireland and supports the Be Media Smart Campaign.

NYCI is represented on the expert group on ‘Risks, opportunities and implications of digitalisation for youth, youth work and youth policy’. It provides policy recommendations, training needs and good practice examples in developing digital youth work across the EU.

www.skillssummary.ie is an easy to use online tool that captures the skills young people gain by participating in non-formal education, such as youth work, volunteering and other out-of-school opportunities.

The website is mobile friendly, so can easily be used with a smartphone and to create an account is free of charge. The tool offers a great opportunity to support the online (or offline) dialog between a young person and a youth worker or mentor. We offer regular Online Demonstrations for youth workers and others who want to get more familiar with this digital tool and learn more about its features.

Hosted by NYCI and supported by Leargas. This training equipped youth workers from Europe with the tools to increase the levels of media literacy amongst the young people that they work with and support them to be responsible digital citizens.

The Skill IT for Youth project is a European initiative aiming to increase the quality of youth work, combining higher levels of excellence and attractiveness in services, obtained through the digitalisation of youth work, with increased opportunities for young people.

https://www.webwise.ie/ has a wide range of resources for supporting children, young people, their parents, teachers and professionals with online safety. They have videos, publications, guides and incredible content for being safe online and promoting digital media literacy. Particularly, they have a page set up for distance learning resources.

Tusla developed a free universal e-learning training programme called ‘Introduction to Children First’. This is a basic introductory 1.5 hour online training to Children First; NYCI’’s Child Protection Programme offers face-to-face training in child protection for the youth sector, but the e-learning training is an excellent resource for organisations during the Covid-19  control measures.

It broadly introduces topics including:

  • Recognising and reporting child abuse;
  • The role of mandated persons;
  • The responsibilities of organisations working with children to safeguard children;
  • The role of designated liaison persons.

If you would like to take this time as an opportunity to upskill your youth work team, our suite of training is available as 2-hour slots for youth work organisations.

Email anne@nyci.ie to discuss options.

DCYA / NYCI Covid-19 Induction Training for the Phased Resumption of Full Youth Services in the Youth Sector.

This supporting information for phased resumption of youth services includes guidance sheets, templates and checklists to help you in planning and resuming youth services.

Practical Advice for Volunteer Involving Organisations from Volunteer Ireland

Youth Workers

Information and resources to support youth workers in relation to the developing Covid-19 situation.

Youth Work in an Online Setting during Covid-19

This guidance document for youth workers and those working with young people looks at youth work in an online setting during Covid-19 under the following headings:

  • What is Digital Youth Work?
  • Moving Offline Youth Work Online – Digital Youth Work Best Practice
  • Media Literacy And Online Safety
  • Consent

We’ve collected some useful, shareable video and visuals on explaining Coronavirus and dealing with stress during this period.

These resources help youth workers engage groups of young people through the creation and playing of digital games. These resources will be updated regularly so if you don’t find what you want now, please come back later. They have been developed by Paul Keating, Limerick Institute of Technology as part of NYCI’s project – Games in Youth Work: Engaging young people in climate action and development education.

This collaborative project between NYCI’s STEAM in Youth Work and Development Education programmes is funded by the Science Foundation of Ireland with additional funding from Irish Aid. We are piloting these resources and would welcome questions and feedback send to Barbara@nyci.ie or Katrin@nyci.ie.

Set of recommendations that youth workers can recommend to young people for interesting, engaging activities, or that young people can access themselves across a range of artforms/media

NYCI is part of this International Partnership on Digital Youth Work which includes many training resources, best practice videos and guidelines on Digital Youth Work and advice on online youth work.

Such as Digital youth work self-assessment
A tool to help reflect on attitudes and values on digitalisation and digital youth work.

Social media plan
Framework to help youth workers draft a social media plan for their organisation.

A youth work matrix of risks related to online-usage and digitalization
This method tackles the need for knowledge of potential risks, as well as of ways to contain risks at an individual or collective level on young peoples’ online usage and digitalisation. This is an essential area of educational work with children and adolescents, and “Safety” is also a separate area among the training needs in the report of the EU expert group “Developing digital youth work”.

What on Earth is Digital Youth Work? (zip file)
A fun and engaging introductory workshop to get youth workers thinking about the role of digital in young people’s lives. It helps us understand the broad definition of digital youth work.
Type: Workshop plan and resources.

Hosted by NYCI and supported by Leargas. This training equipped youth workers from Europe with the tools to increase the levels of media literacy amongst the young people that they work with and support them to be responsible digital citizens.

NYCI is on the steering group of Media Literacy Ireland and supports the Be Media Smart Campaign.

NYCI is represented on the expert group on ‘Risks, opportunities and implications of digitalisation for youth, youth work and youth policy’. It provides policy recommendations, training needs and good practice examples in developing digital youth work across the EU.

Padlet with online youth work and participation tools. A space to share resources (Source: Dan Moxon).

Skills Summary is an easy to use online tool that captures the skills young people gain by participating in non-formal education, such as youth work, volunteering and other out-of-school opportunities. The website is mobile friendly, so can easily be used with a smartphone and to create an account is free of charge. The tool offers a great opportunity to support the online (or offline) dialog between a young person and a youth worker or mentor. We offer regular Online Demonstrations for youth workers and others who want to get more familiar with this digital tool and learn more about its features.

This resource was created to support those who work with young people in all youth work organisations who often share similar concerns, risks and challenges to ensure all young people, staff, volunteers are safe online. However, each organisation should consider how the issues raised in this resource should be adapted to their own local context and what will work most effectively in their practice.

Information, advice and free resources addressing a range of internet safety issues and concerns. Supports young people with staying safe online.

Online resources and downloadable workshops for youth workers using arts in their practice.

If you would like to take this time as an opportunity to upskill your youth work team, our suite of training is available as 2-hour slots for youth work organisations.

Email anne@nyci.ie to discuss options.

Look back at the learnings from this discussion hosted by Finnish online youth work organisation Verke (discussion in English).

Youth work can be the source of safety and security for so many young people in Ireland. Covid-19 and its necessary control measures compound the challenges for vulnerable and at-risk young people. This can create confusion for the organisations that support these young people too. We are all working together to navigate these unprecedented circumstances, so the NYCI Child Protection Programme has put together some information to support the youth work sector to continue their commitment to child protection in their practice.

Information on Young Voices moving meetings online during this current Covid19 situation.

For the purpose of these meetings we will be using Zoom. This online platform is a great way to connect with young people. However it is important to note that similar to all online platforms there are some risks. In order to minimise these risks and safeguard young people we have compiled Information on Zoom and an outline of the safety measures we will be using.

A step by step guide to change your mobile data to unlimited for school/college work.

DCYA / NYCI Covid-19 Induction Training for the Phased Resumption of Full Youth Services in the Youth Sector.

This supporting information for phased resumption of youth services includes guidance sheets, templates and checklists to help you in planning and resuming youth services.

Practical Advice for Volunteer Involving Organisations from Volunteer Ireland

Young People

Here we’ve collected guidance and resources for young people in relation to how to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak. Note that your first port of call for the latest on public health measures should be gov.ie

We’ve collected some useful, shareable video and visuals on explaining Coronavirus and dealing with stress during this period.

Set of recommendations that youth workers can recommend to young people for interesting, engaging activities, or that young people can access themselves across a range of artforms/media.

Skills Summary is an easy to use online tool that captures the skills young people gain by participating in non-formal education, such as youth work, volunteering and other out-of-school opportunities. The website is mobile friendly, so can easily be used with a smartphone and to create an account is free of charge. With Skills Summary you can:

  • Assess your career skills, including communication skills, interpersonal skills and more
  • Identify your key strengths in your career, and areas that need development
  • Develop your job interview skills
  • Build an online profile to track your career progress
  • Gather endorsements to help develop a winning CV
  • Do all of the above for free!

Doing Gaisce is a great way to stay active, improve a skill and help in your community (whilst following current restrictions of course). Young people can answer Ireland’s call too!  It’s not going to be too difficult to think up a skill or physical activity you can undertake whilst at home, and your community action can be at home or ‘from home’ too, so find out what you can volunteer to help with.

Everyone can play their part in getting through this challenging time and promoting active citizenship. Ask family members for ideas on what you can do for an hour a week in the various challenges at home.

Find out more about how to get involved and the supports available:

Digital Youth Work and STEAM. Open to any young person aged 12-18 to enter. Parents, Youth Workers and Teachers can support young people from home or online to enter any Creative Tech Project in fields of STEAM, Digital Creativity or Computer Science.

Young Social Innovators are looking for young people’s ideas about how to tackle the problems in our communities as a result of coronavirus. No idea is too big or too small.

Information, advice and free resources addressing a range of internet safety issues and concerns. Supports young people with staying safe online.

Childline is open every day and is for all children and young people up to the age of 18 in Ireland.

Jigsaw Online Group chats are for young people between 12 and 25 years-old, living in Ireland. These are live discussions online on mental health themes, facilitated by a Jigsaw clinician.

Crisis text line is a 24/7 messaging support service with trained volunteers available to listen to young people going through a tough time.

Provides in the moment anonymous support and problem solving when you need it.

Text UMH to 086-1800-280 if you need support (standard SMS rates apply).

A step by step guide to change your mobile data to unlimited for school/college work.

Funding

Information and updates regarding youth work funding in relation to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Covid-19: DCYA funded youth services and organisations – essential services updated advice

This communication provides additional information in relation to the list of essential services published over the previous weekend, particularly related to youth work services.

Covid-19: communication to Tusla funded youth services and organisations

Covid-19: communication to Tusla funded youth services and organisations

Covid-19: communication to DCYA funded youth services and organisations

Read Department of Children and Youth Affairs advice for stakeholders, funded youth services and organisations re Covid-19 here

Special call for grant applications for pilot activities responding to local needs arising from the COVID-19

Please find a special call for Grant applications for pilot activities published by the European Youth Foundation here. It is a special call for local or […]

HSE Resources

The HSE has also made available posters, leaflets and videos on hygiene, hand-washing and preventing the spread of Covid-19.