Offaly youth groups up for regional awards

Four Offaly clubs from Foróige and Comhairle na nÓg are being recognised for their positive contribution to the local community in a regional awards ceremony tomorrow (Saturday May 16) in the Tullamore Court Hotel. Foróige clubs Rath/Eglish and Cloghan as well as the Mid and South/West Offaly Comhairle na nÓg groups are being recognised for their contribution to society, under the Permanent tsb Foróige Youth Citizenship Programme and Awards. The clubs will display their work this Saturday at the event and are also in with a chance of reaching the national awards ceremony taking place later in the autumn. Rath and Eglish Foróige Club held a stay awake for a "Streetwise Campaign" a group that helps children living in Third World countries. On the night of the stay awake they organised a number of activities to keep themselves occupied. The raised a total of €3,145. Cloghan Foróige Club decided to bridge a gap between them and the older generation in their community. They met with some members of the active retirement group to discuss producing a booklet on the differences between the youth of today and past. Some members of the active age group have already submitted stories to the group and work to complete the book continues. The members of South West Offaly Comhairle were invited to attend a meeting to talk about issues that effected them in their local community. At this meeting, the young people decided that suicide is the most important issue facing them. They then decided to do a project centred around "Offaly Healthy Young People" focusing on positive mental health promotion in the area. The held a logo competition for promotional materials, wrote to the GAA and asked for promotional space on the back of leaflets, met with county councillors to inform them of the project and are now going to get the posters up throughout the county to promote positive mental health. They are currently looking at other promotional methods. Following on from a discussion about health issues affecting young people, the Mid Offaly Comhairle na nÓg Group decided to design a website for young people, called "Offaly Healthy Young People" this is available at www.ohyp.ie. The aim of the website was to help young people in Offaly find helpful information dealing with a range of health topics specifically affecting youth. They sourced information for the website, surveyed young people on what they would like to see on the site and designed all content of the site.