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Autumn School 2025: “Building capacity to address the needs of LGBTQ+ youth through youth work, a global priority”

September 5 - September 7

Join youth workers, volunteers and activists in the Youth 2030 Global Youth Work – National Youth Council of Ireland and Belong To – LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland Autumn School, 2025, which takes place from the 5th-7th September 2025.

Applications for the Autumn School are now closed. We will be in touch with applicants shortly.

Please contact Sally for any further enquiries: sally@nyci.ie

This Autumn School will create a space to explore how LGBTQ+ youth work can offer a transformative potential for social change and stronger society.  

The threat to democracy across the world, calls for a radical shift in how we work with LGBTQ+ youth. This also calls to our attention the challenging issues for the LGBTQI+ community at local, national and global levels that need to be addressed in youth and community settings in Ireland.  

In these turbulent times, we need spaces where a more just future can be imagined and cultivated. This autumn school will support youth workers, volunteers and activists with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to interact with these issues.  

This initiative, led by activists from the queer community, will gather together youth work professionals and educators, to explore ground for an active, critical, and compassionate community.   

This autumn school is an immersive experience for people with experience in this field. It will enhance your knowledge and support you with tools in your youth work practice.  This is also an invitation to engage with joyful curiosity, and to learn together. 

Calendar

Date & time

5th – 7th September 2025

Price

Cost

€20

map

Venue

TBC

Delivered by

NYCI, Belong To and External Facilitators

Hilary Tierney 

Hilary Tierney is Associate Professor Emeritus of Community and Youth Work in the Department of Applied Social Studies in Maynooth University (MU).  Despite retirement, she gets to continue to work with amazing people who are committed  to deep democracy and sustainable social change, by developing our capacity for critical curiosity and informed action, to create a world worth living in for all who share the planet. 

Kate O’Connell

Kate O’Connell (she/her) works in the Equality and Intercultural Team of the National Youth Council of Ireland. Kate has been a youth worker for 17 years, and her area of expertise is the inclusion of minoritised young people, particularly minority ethnic young people and supporting the development of inclusive communities. She has worked with young people and with services to realise that an inclusive vision for young Travellers, minority ethnic young people, undocumented young people and Muslim young women, among others.  Kate has a long history of anti-racism activism and has led on several initiatives in the community that have looked to build community resilience, social solidarity but also specifically name and target challenge behaviour. Kate’s core belief is the power of community action and “small p” politics of grassroots organising to bring about social change. Kate brings specific expertise in challenging hateful narratives through youth work and challenging the rising hate and hostility that is increasingly being targeted at LGBTQ+ communities.  

Lakshnie Hettihewa

Lakshnie Hettihewa (she/her): Lakshnie is an experienced psychotherapist and anti-oppressive facilitator. Lakshnie spent almost a decade working in an NHS mental health team and has been in private practice for 3 years. She continues to develop her therapeutic skills through study of process-orientated psychology.

In her work for the human rights charity brap Lakshnie leads the Anti-racist coaching programme for leaders and develops and facilitates learning programmes to support systemic change on issues of equity. She has had many opportunities to work across many sectors and engage in difficult and sensitive dialogues on issues of equity.

Lakshnie uses her work in therapy and facilitation to explore how oppression affects people and particularly those from marginalised queer global majority backgrounds. This interest has led Lakshnie to run a number of wellbeing and resourcing workshops at queer events such as The Queer Campfire (2023, 2024), Wanderers of Colour hiking event (2024) and Milton Keynes Pride (2023) to explore with participants how to resource themselves individually and in community whilst navigating oppressive systems. She also recently worked with a research team exploring how to hold space on a Queer Natures project (2025).

Patricia Prendiville

Patricia Prendiville has over 30 years experience working to support organisations that work for equality, human rights and social justice. This includes LGBTI+ organisations, women’s organisations, anti-poverty and community development organisations. Her paid roles have included facilitator, external organisational development consultant, independent chairperson, executive director. Her work includes organisations in Ireland, UK and Europe that are usually part of larger networks building movements to bring about positive social change. She has written books on working with young women, facilitation skills, working with LGBTI people and resources for domestic violence practitioners; she has undertaken strategic development, evaluation and learning, team development, and recruitment assignments for numerous organisations. Her work with LGBTI+ issues and organisations includes organisations in Ireland – LinC, BeLonGTo, LGBT Ireland,TENI, LGBT Diversity, Lesbian Line, NXF, and DCEDIY, while in Europe she has worked with ILGA-Europe, IGLYO, TGEU, OII , ILGA World, and the SOGI Unit of Council of Europe. 

Joy Warmington

As CEO of brap (www.brap.org.uk), Joy also spearheads their work on learning and change. Joy’s area of expertise is leadership and organisational development, and she applies this lens to the work that brap does with organisations, boards, and leadership teams. Joy started her career in youth work and also studied dance theatre – and still loves to move, but only to the right music! Recently, Joy led on the design and delivery of allyship programmes for white leaders in partnership with the King’s Fund and has created clear paradigm-shifting work about the implementation of anti-racism. Joy holds many qualifications including an MSc, Cert Ed, Postgraduate Diploma in Multicultural Education, and a Certificate in Process-Oriented Psychology from the Deep Democracy Institute, Oregon. She is also qualifying as a psychotherapist.

Objectives

The training objectives are to:

Empower participants through a critically informed learning approach, acknowledging the inherent political dimension of youth work.

Support youth workers to see their work as an anti-oppressive practice that understands the impact of oppression on the LGBTQ+ community, and across other aspects of marginalised identities.

Build critical literacy and open dialogue about homophobia, transphobia, racism, inequality, and social justice.   

Create a space of community, solidarity, play and well-being.  

Expectations for Participation

  • Attendance for the entire 2-day duration of Autumn School-Friday eve to Sunday morning inclusive.
  • Experience of working on LGBTQI+ issues.
  • Willingness and openness to learn.
  • Commitment to equality, equity, human rights, and solidarity.
  • Applications are particularly welcome from LGBTQI+ and ethnic minority communities.

This is a subsidised school, but we will ask all participants to pay €20

Designed for

Youth Workers with experience working on LGBTQI+ issues.

 

Please note that applications for the Autumn School have now closed. For further enquires please contact Sally on sally@nyci.ie

Sorry. This form is no longer accepting new submissions.

Details

Start:
September 5
End:
September 7
Event Category:

Venue

TBC