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Minority Youth Strategy launched in Waterford

By David Mc Donnell, Munster Express Friday 23rd May 2008

A youth strategy for minority youths living in Waterford was officially launched by the City Mayor, Cllr Mary O’Halloran at Mount Sion last Friday. The strategic approach was put together by the Information and Support Unit (ISU) and Waterford Youth Arts. Both groups conducted consultation sessions with 97 teenagers to identify many of the difficulties facing teenagers of non nationals living in Waterford and they incorporated many of the solutions that were brought up be the teenagers to help them better integrate with Irish teenagers and the local community.

Some of the actions requested by the young people included establishing a “port of call” where young people who have newly arrived into Waterford can access information about youth services, the development of a common approach from youth organisations to include newcomers and the creation of a booklet outlining the different youth services in Waterford being made available in a variety of languages. Some of the objectives of the Youth Strategy include providing non-national parents with information about the organisations. It was also decided that there should be a showcase of youth activities and a map of the different youth organisations in the city. The importance of helping both teenagers and their parents to speak English through after school and summer school classes was also identified.

Speaking to the Munster Express, Cathy Hanrahan of Waterford Youth Art outlined three important aspects from the consultation with the teenagers.
“These 97 young people, from diverse countries who are now living as citizens in Waterford, have identified the things that they would love to see in place to help them to engage fully as citizens of Waterford City”. “Having the language and learning English is cited as the single most important thing that these kids need. It is their biggest barrier to finding information. If you don’t have the language, you can’t ask for the information and you don’t know where to find it”.

"After that, support from parents was identified as the key element. Culturally, many people have different values and these young people need the support of their parents in order to engage in many of these activities, as some of them would be culturally challenging for parents to understand”. “I am delighted to say that art seems to be one of the avenues that have worked because there is nothing more unifying than a love of music or of dance. The kids are very quick to get involved in dance, drama and visual art forms like video and film, because you don’t need a lot of language to be able to engage with these art forms”.

Br Kevin Mascarenhas of the ISU added: There are many kids from other countries who are not able to access the different activities in Waterford. This is going to help them a lot; because the youth strategy incorporated what the young people are feeling themselves. It highlights many issues and gives a voice to these young people. “The non-Irish young people want information so that they are able to involve themselves with young Irish people. They want to integrate, learn Irish culture and learn Irish ways. A lot of them are taking to hurling and soccer and this is something new for them. All of the issues that they have highlighted in this strategy are going to help them integrate in Waterford"