IMPACT’s Boards & Voluntary Agencies Branch made a donation to Ronanstown Youth Service to help repair lighting and electrical equipment needed to keep their local drama group in operation.  Local IMPACT representative John O’Hara is a youth worker in Ronanstown in North Dublin, and works with young people in development drama. The group was able to stage the play “Our Day Out” from the junior cert curriculum, helping local young people to study the play at first hand for their summer exams. 

Branch organiser Siobhan Curran explained: “John’s drama group is a great example of an invaluable resource for young people, where they can engage positively within their communities as well as gain confidence and self esteem.  IMPACT represents many workers across the youth sector and we’re actively organising workers in the sector to build their strength as a group."

Siobhan is developing a campaign to highlight the vital role of youth work in the community. “This life changing work  is too often undervalued. As the recession continues, these great services are suffering disproportionate cutbacks, at a time when they’re needed more than ever.

“Youth services are continuing to provide a safe environment, a ‘home from home’ for many young people in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the city, but they do so with increasingly limited resources. By organising workers in the sector, we have a real opportunity to develop the potential of the sector to resist this decline,” she said.