INSIDE STORY: Giving youths an opportunity to shine

INSIDE STORY Foróige, last week elected a new chair for their 50,000-plus members in SANDRA MCINTYRE, a Templeport native, looking to integrate the national with the local, the urban and rural and get more money off the newly configured government for the 614 clubs the group works with in the Republic. Reporter PAUL NEILAN spoke with Sandra about her new role in Ireland’s leading youth organisation, tackling bullying and how the organisation has changed since she attended as a teenager.

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“Its philosophy is that every person is unique and that given the opportunity that they can shine, be creative, take responsibility, be independent and have an influence on their lives and the lives around them,” explains Sandra McIntyre, Foróige’s new positive thinking chairperson.
The youth organisation runs programmes, discos, concerts, entrepreneur competitions and more, but the core point of all of these is youth development.
“One of the more important programmes is leadership, which gives young people the skills to become leaders, good communication and decision-making skills - youth development.
“For example, we did a programme with fifty kids from Cavan to Newgrange a few weeks ago and did the programme there over three days and they get an NUI Galway first class honours degree in community work and leadership. When I say leadership, it means that the kids would take a front role in taking on a project of their own in their community and roll it out - be it something small like running an ice-cream morning to something like a fundraiser. They would have to show they can run it from start to finish but they choose their own project and leader for it.”
Is it just treating kids like adults?
“Definitely,” says the mother-of-two, who is just back from the Mansion House at her first ‘gig’ as chairperson, held in the company of then Minister Joan Burton.
The group is funded by the Department of Children, Tusla and the HSE, who combine for most of the funding with philanthropic organisations making up the remainder needed for the 160-odd programmes run by the group. Funding’s much needed as they have taken a serious hit since the recession.
“Part of the role is to go out and lobby for funding for the organisation, which has been cut 33% since the recession - we’ve fought but only got 2.5% back. It’s not just us, it’s all youth organisations. We’ve been kicking the can for a few years now in keeping our heads just above water, so we really need the government to improve funding.”

Community
National issues aside, Sandra is a founder member of her local Templeport club, which runs its own community-centred projects in the most rural of rural areas in the country.
“Our club is up and running since 2006, I’m a founder member, we meet every Friday night and take part in all the local events - for example, Foróige’s Got Talent, which was a great success.
“This year, for example, February was the anti-bullying campaign, called ‘Fab February’ and the kids’ campaign was to ‘Walk a Mile in My Shoes’, where they wore blank T-shirts and wrote positive slogans on them. And then the boys swapped shoes with the girls and walked a mile.”
Dresses made of junk, leadership skills, bake-offs, clean-ups... and then the famous discos.
“We do lots of stuff and local community projects - the community games here in Bawnboy on the August Bank Holiday, for example, and lots of discos as well, which they love - we could have over 500 at a disco now - that’s five or six times a year.
“There are 22 clubs in the county and that’s ‘policed’ by the Foróige ‘leaders’ supervising the kids, who they tend to be more allowed to them than others - they’re simply safer.”

Bullying
Bullying still plays a large part in teenage life, says Sandra, and while it is not as obvious as the stereotypical head-down-the-toilet, the fact that it has changed has not diminished its effect.
“Regarding bullying, you would think that the kids would be more aware with all the media campaigns and exposure of what they are actually doing but it is still an issue and still it can be any form of bullying - from schoolyard to social media - it just doesn’t seem to go away.
“We don’t tolerate any of it and urge anyone to report it because if there is an issue it needs to be dealt with straight away... right now.
“Foróige has their own workshop on bullying, again run by volunteers. It’s not done over one night, it’s meant to be a couple of weeks, so the kids can really learn about it. It also makes them sit back, think and realise that maybe what they are doing is actually bullying, whereas before they might have thought it to be play-acting.
“It’s definitely still there but has improved immensely over the last few years with the media highlighting child-bullying, so the kids are definitely more aware, it’s not as bad [as it was] but it will take a long time. I actually don’t know if you can ever stamp out bullying you couldn’t pick just one area and say this is the only type of bullying - it’s part of our nature but they [the kids] are more aware and tend to think a little more before they act.”

‘Absolutely love it’
Three years on the national council, one on the executive and now chair, it was a decade ago when Sandra first returned to the group.
“In about 2006, I got involved with Foróige because there was very little for the kids, especially in rural areas and I suppose the kids’ parents who met up had kids at 12 or 13, and beyond GAA there was just nothing for them to do.
“I had no kids of that age [Sandra has a 17-year old daughter and an eight-year-old son] so they asked me if we would be interested in setting up and becoming leaders because, they said, that if they were leaders their kids wouldn’t go! So, myself and two others set up the club and we absolutely love it.
“I was in Foróige when I was younger and loved the citizen part of it. For example, a community clean-up to make some part of your community look nice. It gave us something to do, to feel part of something... to shine.
“All the things we do in the club are centred around that: to give people the opportunity to shine. Some people might not want to take part in a talent competition but they might be great in creating the scene that they might use in that competition - there’s a role for everyone.
“Unless you’re living in a city there’s not a whole pile that the kids can do. The distance is a huge factor for the young people and to bring them all together in a community centre, or wherever, it gives them the tools to do programmes, take part and show their creative side and be invested in what they are doing.”

Evolved
Over its 64 years, Foróige has evolved from the annual trip to a soaking wet Longford with the ‘hang sanguidges’ [not really!] to a modern, streamlined, national organisation, but for Sandra it retains its relevance in community values.
“It’s changed immensely,” says the Cavan chair of six years. “When I was in Foróige as a kid, ‘citizenship’ was the only thing I really remember. That and ‘Achievement Day’ in Ballinagh, where all the clubs in the county showcase what they did in the year.
“Now, there are so many programmes and different events. Hype, for example, is a kind of under 18s Oxigen festival. That’s actually a huge event for all the clubs in Ireland. Then there’s the ‘Band on the Strand’, a musical festival on a beach in Mayo, so they have an awful lot more than when I first joined. If you’ve an interest in photography, or guitar, we can set up a special-interest group and get in a photographer to show them what they need to know about photography and so on.
“It gave me more of a community sense. It taught me to care an awful lot more about it. There’s a huge sense of ownership in your community when you do something and as I got older I wanted, as a volunteer, to give the kids that opportunity to value their community and the different organisations there. It gives them a sense of pride, of achievement, when you actually do something and you can see the results and those results are appreciated within your community.”
Sandra has two years as chair ahead of her and literally, not a wet week in the job the busy west Cavanite is already making plans.
“What I want to do is intergrate the projects into the club side - every child should have an opportunity to take part in every programme, regardless of what end they approach it from.
“I’m excited, though, I think it’ll be a good two years. I’m really excited by it actually.
“I think it’s a fantastic opportunity. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
“There’ll always be an email. There’ll always be a phonecall. Every day there is something. There’s always something.”