YOUTHREACH County Coordinator 24 Millfield Heights, Buncrana Co Donegal Tel/Fax: 074 93 20908 Email: sandrabuchanan@donegalvec.ie

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Co Donegal VEC

Buncrana & Glengad’s Budding Photographers

Each year the learners at the Buncrana and Glengad Youthreach centres

undertake a photography course just before Christmas. The course is

provided by Envision Photography. We would like to share some of the

photos with you taken by this year’s learners around Buncrana.

Congratulations! Staff and learners in Lifford Youthreach extend their

congratulations to Resource Tutor Aidan Callaghan who won the

Triathlon section at the recent Donegal Sports Star Awards. Aidan

(pictured left during a recent triathlon), representing Letterkenny 24-7

Triathlon Club, beat off stiff competition to secure the accolade.

Pictured right are learners hard at

work at the annual county table quiz

held in December.

Letterkenny came first, Lifford came

second and Buncrana third.

Quiz Time!

Welcome...Welcome...Welcome...Welcome...to the first edition of our 2013 newsletter. Learners and staff alike have been busy with a range of activities which you can read about in the newsletter. These have included photography, literacy, Gaisce, art competitions and triathlons! The Restorative Practice project has continued in all centres and is beginning to move towards the closing conference for the project at the start of May. The next edition of the newsletter will be available in June; for now, happy Easter!

Dr Sandra Buchanan, Dr Sandra Buchanan, Dr Sandra Buchanan, Dr Sandra Buchanan,

Youthreach County CoordinatorYouthreach County CoordinatorYouthreach County CoordinatorYouthreach County Coordinator

Co Donegal YOUTHREACH Co Donegal YOUTHREACH Co Donegal YOUTHREACH Co Donegal YOUTHREACH NewsNewsNewsNews

Co Donegal VEC March 2013 Volume 11, Issue 1

Restorative Practice

Continues

2

Ballyshannon

Fundraiser

2

Interview Skills Day 3

Literacy in Buncrana 3

Quiz Time 4

Inside this issue:

Youthreach is co-funded by the Irish Government and EU under the National Development Plan

2007-2013.

Centre Development Planning Begins Again The Quality Framework (QF) for Youthreach arose from the Youthreach

2000 consultative process and the requirements of the Qualifications

(Education and Training) Act 1999. The aim of the QF process is to

develop and implement a quality assurance model that would lead to

continuous improvement in the service offered by centres and in a

manner that meets the needs of learners, staff and management. The

quality assurance model that has been developed encourages partnership

and collaboration between all stakeholder groups. It highlights the

importance of developing systems for carrying out all key activities within

the Centre as well as the need to develop policies and procedures in order to establish best practice and

ensure consistently high standards of service. The Quality Framework forms the basis of the quality

assurance system. It comprises four interconnected building blocks with the Quality Standards at the core

as they inform the other key aspects of the framework: Quality Standards; Centre Development Planning

(CDP); Internal Centre Evaluation (ICE) and External Centre Evaluation (Inspections, of which both Lifford

and Gortahork have been inspected). Lifford Youthreach was one of the original pilot centres and this

year will embark on the ICE process, completed every year in between CDP to produce an annual report.

The other four centres, Ballyshannon, Buncrana, Gortahork and Letterkenny have embarked on the

Centre Development Planning

Process for the third time and

will soon produce three year

centre development plans to

guide their work until 2016.

Pictured right are learners in the

Buncrana centre actively

participating in the learner review

process for the CDP.

Page 2 Co Donegal YOUTHREACH News Volume 11, I ssue 1

Peace III Restorative Practice Project Update

Project supported by PEACE III Programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Donegal County Council

PEACE III Donegal CDB Peace & Reconciliation Partnership

The Peace III Restorative Practice Project, which all the Youthreach centres are engaged in along with fourteen

post-primary schools, Donegal Youth Service and Foróige, has now moved into the third element of the project,

organisational activity. Having participated in training in November 2011 and just completed two research

instruments, centres have received a small amount of funding from the project to enable them to further embed

restorative practice in their centres as they see fit. Training and mentoring has been provided for staff, learners and

parents. Additionally six Youthreach staff from the Buncrana, Letterkenny and Lifford centres, along with school and

youth work staff, have been undertaking a Post Graduate Certificate in Restorative Practice through the University of

Ulster, also funded by PEACE III. The project will finish with a closing conference in May to look at the learning from

the project over the last two years and to look at how to sustain this work going into the future.

Michael Collins from An Gaisce/President Awards Scheme visited Letterkenny Youthreach on 12th February 2013 and gave an informative talk to the learners about the scheme. The talk was very interesting which got a lot of learners signing up for the award. He also presented bronze awards to learners Aine Tyrell and Stephen Coyle (pictured below right together with Breda Rodden, Co-ordinator). Other learners who also achieved their

b r o n z e a w a r d i n c l u d e M a g g i e G i bbon s and Chloe Gallagher ( n o t pictured).

Michael Collins, Gaisce, Visits Letterkenny Youthreach

Ballyshannon Fundraiser Youthreach Ballyshannon has strived tirelessly and their hard work has

paid off, as they raised a substantial amount of money for Bundoran

RNLI! The Lifeboat fundraiser was part of a craft fair that Youthreach

Ballshannon held in the Lakeside for their Presentation of Awards for

FETAC Levels 3 and 4. The group managed to raise money for Bundoran

RNLI and presented William Gallagher with the money raised for this

very worthy cause. The RNLI was busy in Donegal last year, with 77

callouts reported for 2012. The figures show that the RNLI had 939

callouts nationwide, with more than a thousand people rescued at sea.

The Arranmore Lifeboat helped 29 people in distress last year and was

launched 35 times. The Lough Swilly Lifeboat was also launched 35 times, saving 25 people. The volunteer crew of

Bundoran RNLI Lifeboat, launching 7 times last year, brought 14 people to safety including surfers, swimmers and a

walker. This is an invaluable service to the people of Donegal, and so all support is greatly appreciated.

Page 3 Co Donega l YOUTHREACH News Volume 11, I ssue 1

Successful County Interview Skills Day

Buncrana’s Literacy Drive

Special Visitors in

Lifford!

organisational activity. Having participated in training in November 2011 and just completed two research

Lifford Youthreach had two very special visitors

to our Centre on Thursday January 31st.

Those visitors were the Anglo Celt and Sam

Maguire cups. While the Anglo Celt had been

with us in 2011, Sam Maguire was back in

Donegal for the first time in twenty years. The

cup was accompanied by county midfielder

Neil Gallagher, to whom we extend our sincere

appreciation. Learners were delighted with the

visit and used the opportunity to take numerous

photographs. Family members were also

invited to the occasion and they too availed of

the opportunity for photographs.

Pictured left are learners from

Buncrana on their weekly visit

to the local library which is

part of the centre’s drive to

improve literacy.

Congratulations to Freya Stancombe-Taylor from Letterkenny

Youthreach who recently won the Northern Region (Co

Donegal) section of the annual National Association of

Youthreach Coordinators (NAYC) art competition. The theme of

the competition was Being Young and Irish. Freya’s winning

entry (pictured right) went forward to represent the Northern

Region at the national competition in Dundalk in February.

Congratulations to Freya!

On Tuesday 22 January, learners from across the county gathered in Letterkenny for a mock interview skills days.

They had spent a number of weeks beforehand preparing their CVs with their tutors and Advocates in centre before

forwarding them to the County Coordinator for commentary. Learners were then timetabled for interviews with two

interviewers (Coordinators and Advocates). After their mock interviews, which were videoed for further learning, they

received verbal and written feedback on their interview and CV. This is the second year this has happened and has

proved a useful experience for learners.