Limerick City-wide Children and Youth Forum Conference

Limerick City-wide Children and Youth Forum Conference – “Building Resilience for a Brighter Future”

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Richard pictured with the organisers of the Limerick Citywide Children & Youth Forum Conference which took place in Thomond Park last Monday, April 7.
L-R: Damian Landy (Limerick Youth Service), Cora Foley (Limerick Clare Education & Training Board), Dr. Fergus Heffernan (Speaker; Psychologist,Psychotherapist), Cathal Dillon (Southill Area Centre), Margaret Mastriani (Limerick City Children’s Service Committee), Mike Walsh (Extern) and Dairine Cross (Community Development – TUSLA).

The inaugural Limerick City-wide Children and Youth Forum Conference  organised by , in partnership with Limerick FC, was held on Monday, April 7^th in Thomond Park as part of the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival.

The Limerick City-wide Children and Youth Forum is made up of practitioners from the community, voluntary and statutory sector who work with children and young people in the city. The Forum works in partnership to share information and identify and address gaps in services so outcomes for children and young people are improved. The Forum is an umbrella body of the four local fora in the city (Garryowen,  Northside, Southside and St. Mary’s) and a sub-group of the Limerick City Children’s Services Committee.

The conference highlighted, celebrated and shared Limericks long history of innovative and excellent youth work and family support that positively impact on the lives of young people and their families.

The purpose of the Conference was to showcase the innovative and excellent work being done across Limerick City in the children, youth and families sector, provide practitioners with the opportunity to share knowledge and experience with each other in a very interactive way and to share practical approaches for building resilience.

The key note speaker for the conference was Dr. Fergus Heffernan a renowned Psychologist and Psychotherapist who is a leading educator in the area of resilience and how it relates to our mental health. Dr. Heffernan gave an engaging talk full or practical advice and tools and simple measures that child and youth practitioners can use to keep mentally fit to help them with the challenges and rigours of everyday life and work.

The idea for the Conference came from the Forum “We were really looking forward to showcasing all that is good in family support and the children and youth work sector in Limerick, there is a lot of excellent work taking place in a variety of organisations and we wanted to highlight this” Cathal Dillon, Community Youth Worker in Southill and member of the Limerick Citywide Children and Youth Forum.

Pat O’Sullivan, Chairman of Limerick FC also noted “Limerick Football Club are a community club, focused on youth development and encouragement; we value co-operation, combining talent and sharing information. To see local groups who work so hard in our communities to the benefit our young people coming together in partnership to hold such an event is brilliant. The event showcased the positive and important work done in our region and Limerick FC are proud to partner such an event”.

The founder of “I Love Limerick” – Richard Lynch was MC at the conference and it proved to be an exciting learning event for all.

For further info contact Cathal Dillon on [email protected] or 0851757007

Photos by Krzysztof Luszczki for ILoveLimerick.com 2014. All Rights Reserved.