A NORTHSIDE youth service is looking for 12 young people, aged 16-24, to take part in a new project dedicated to improving services in the area.
Funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of Ireland, Sphere 17’s community mapping project will be focused specifically on how accessible and beneficial services in Dublin 17 are to its youth.
Project co-ordinator Shannon Baker spoke to Northside People about what the pilot project will entail.
“There is a lot of services in the Dublin 17 area and you’d be foolish to say there isn’t. Whether or not they are accessible to young people though, we don’t know,” Shannon said.
“A service might be there, but do young people know it’s there? For example, do they know how to sign up for social welfare if they need it, or does a young person know how to fill out an application for a local college?”
The 12 young people selected will survey people in areas including Darndale, Coolock and Priorswood to obtain information about all types of services, from post offices and schools to pubs and shops. These participants will be entrusted with the responsibility of deciding how the project is carried out and how information will be collected.
Surveying will be carried out over a six-month period before the information is compiled and released to the public.
Shannon said she would like to see the data collected over this period used by the local services.
“We don’t know what some services will do with the information. Some won’t need to improve but hopefully some will take it on board and improve in terms of youth friendliness and how they go about relaying information to young people,” Shannon said.
As well as providing a useful service to the area, the project also hopes to teach valuable skills to the 12 young people involved.
Training will be provided in both leadership and researching to ensure that participants will be qualified to carry out the project, and to ensure that they will be better equipped to pursue other opportunities in their futures.
“The main thing I hope this project achieves is that the 12 people that come on board are upskilled and confident to pursue whatever they want to in the next step of their life,” Shannon said.
“For a young person to have that confidence is huge. Young people in this area can be told that they’ll be here forever.
“That’s not true, there’s a lot of potential in this area and it’s just a matter of helping them access that.”
The project is scheduled to begin on September 15. If you would like to be involved, email Shannon at shannon.baker@sphere17.ie.
REPORT: Daniel O’Connor