State of Art: Irish Context

March 2016

Social Inclusion Tools and Techniques

amongst Providers of Services to Youth
Introduction
COURAGE is a three-year programme of research and development integrating
educational, youth, sports and other leisure activities. Partner institutions are based
in Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Lithuania and Norway.
The programme addresses the exclusion of young people from social, educational,
cultural and economic opportunities associated with full citizenship and the focus is
to develop best practice in making social inclusion a daily reality for children and
youth.
Whilst there are various statutory and non-governmental approaches and provisions
in an Irish context, these are principally in formal educational or employment-related
domains. There is, therefore, a significant gap in the resourcing of social inclusion
practices in other spheres such as sports, mental health and personal development.
Additionally, whilst many front line staff in these spheres recognise the need for an
increased emphasis on social inclusion practices, they lack access to suitable
training and techniques as well as adequate resourcing.
In the Irish national context, Clare Youth Service is in an unusual position in offering
second chance vocational educational as well as informal youth work provision.
Generally, these spheres are distinct. In developing their services across these two
areas, Clare Youth Service has employed Developmental Groupwork practices for
almost half a century. These practices are deeply embedded in both their formal
education and informal education provision.
In recent years, the organisation has increasingly engaged in inter-agency
collaborations including the development of a range of contacts amongst statutory
providers and voluntary youth providers including sporting bodies. Sporting groups
are aware of the growing body of research here that demonstrates that, whilst sports

participation is potentially powerful force for social inclusion, the participation rates of
young women and all young people from lower socio-economic groups decline as
children move into their teens and young adult years. (cf. Economic and Social
Research Institute, 2008, Sporting Lives: An Analysis of a Lifetime of Irish Sport and
2013, Keeping Them in the Game).
The 2008 report describes how, up to the age of 10, boys play more sport and a
large gender gap in participation opens up. The gender gap closes during early
second-level school years when more girls take up sport but this is short-lived as the
team sports that girls are introduced to in these years tend to be short lived in
appeal. The result is that by age 20, 66% of male respondents were playing sport
compared to 36% of female respondents. (ESRI, 2008)
The impact of social disadvantage, measured by educational attainment and income
levels, also starts young but continues to widen in adulthood. Those from higher
socio-economic groups are far more likely to take up new sports and less likely to
drop out of sport in young adulthood. The following tables from the ESRIs 2013
report show clearly the effect of income and social class on sports participation.

Current Benchmarks
The immediate target groups for output of COURAGE are youth and community
workers, school leaders and teachers, trainers, and coaches, working with young
people with varying and often inadequate resources for training and support.
Given the foregoing, Clare Youth Service wishes to promote and extend its
groupwork practices and make them relevant and available to other organisations
working with young people in order to promote more effective social inclusion.
The Project seeks to combat exclusion and to promote high quality youth work by
providing training and support through inter-agency collaboration. To this end, a
benchmark of existing provision is offered.
Statutory

Department of Education.

In Ireland, participation in formal education is compulsory from the age of six to

sixteen or until three years of second-level education has been completed. The
formal education system comprises of early childhood, primary, post-primary, further
education & training as well as higher education sectors. There are a range of
supports for students with special education needs and for those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. Supports for disadvantaged students include

Increased resources for schools deemed disadvantaged on a spatial basis.

These are DEIS schools. DEIS stands for Delivering Equality of Opportunity in

Schools but is also the Irish (Gaelic language) word for opportunity.
Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) Programme that aims to integrate

supports in different spheres of students lives

Traveller Education Provision

Whilst these programmes exist within mainstream post-primary (second level)

schools, a large part of the education provision for socially excluded young people is
generally known as second chance education and takes place within the Further
Education & Training Sector.
This sector provides education and training which occurs after second level
schooling but which is not part of the third level system, typically involving students
who have not completed post-primary education in a post-primary school.
There are a range of providers involved in the delivery of education to young school
leavers. They include the 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs) around the
country as well as a small number of youth work organisations in the voluntary NonGovernmental Organisation (NGO) sector.
The main provision for those still at post-primary age (18 years and under) offered by
the ETBs is Youthreach (also offered within the NGO sector by Clare Youth Service
Community Training Centre and others as part of the national Youthreach initiative).
A process is also underway whereby ETBs are absorbing the states apprenticeship
programmes
Youthreach is a Department of Education and Skills official education, training and
work experience programme for early school leavers. It offers young people the

opportunity to identify options within adult life, and provides them with opportunities
to acquire certification.
Youthreach operates at 110 locations (as well as 35 Community Training Centres)
within the state, usually over 2 years on a full time year round basis, and delivers 35
hours Education and training per week for 45 weeks. Courses are free and a training
allowance is paid.
The course aims to identify the learners needs and negotiate an individual learner
plan. There are supports for learners in overcoming personal social and learning
difficulties, developing self-confidence to enable them to participate in society, and in
gaining a range of competencies essential for further learning. Learners pursue a
range of educational, training and work experience options to enhance their
employability or to progress to further education. The programme emphasises
personal development, literacy/numeracy, communication and IT, along with a choice
of vocational options such as Catering, Hairdressing, Computers, Woodwork,
Photography, Video, Sports, Art and Craft, and a work experience programme.

Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DYCA)

DYCA was set up in 2011 to bring together various functions in relation to young
people that has over time been dispersed amongst an unwieldy number of
government departments and agencies. The responsibilities of DCYA is to coordinate a wide range of policy and service activity, both direct and indirect, for
children, young people and families in Ireland including:
the direct provision of a range of universal and targeted services;
ensuring high-quality arrangements are in place for focused interventions dealing
with child welfare and protection, family support, adoption, school attendance and
reducing youth crime. Comprehensive oversight of the Child and Family Agency,
established in January 2014, is an integral element of this;
the harmonisation of policy and provision across Government and partners related
to children, young people and families.
NGO Youth Work Sector

Youth Work Sector (mainly comprising local regions affiliated to Youth Work
Ireland)

The Youth Work Sector works with young people outside (but often partnering with)
the formal education sector. The Youth Work Act, 2001 provides a legal framework
for the provision of youth work programmes and services and gives statutory
responsibility at national level to the Minister for Education and Skills and at local
level to ETBs for the development of youth work and its co-ordination with other
services for young people.
The Youth Work Act, 2001, defines Youth Work as:
"a planned programme of education designed for the purpose of aiding and
enhancing the personal and social development of young persons through their
voluntary participation, and which is complementary to their formal, academic or
vocational education and training; and provided primarily by voluntary youth work
organisations." (Youth Work Act, 2001)
It is important to note that Youth Work operates in various settings spanning the nonformal education through to informal education. The definition articulates youth work
as being educational and elective, structured and systematic. It engages young
people from ten to twenty-four years of age.
Youth Work is predicated on the voluntary participation of young people. Flexibility of
approach and emphasis on the interpersonal, enables it to offer an educational
process complementary to that provided through formal education. In addition, Youth
Work often acts as the point of contact and referral in the interface with other youthrelated issues spanning the realms of care, health, and welfare.
As a creative and development process, Youth Work stimulates critical reflection and
facilitates the cultivation of active citizenship and the enhancement of sustainable
personal and social competencies and capacities. Thus, Youth Work has a defined
position on the continuum of educational and lifelong learning provision.
Youth Work organisations are funded through a combination of 1) Youth Work
funding schemes administered by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs

(DCYA) such as Young Peoples Facilities and Services Funds, Youth Service Grant
Scheme, Special Projects for Youth, Youth Information Centres, 2) specific funding
offered by other government departments and agencies such as drugs education
funding, youth justice funding etc, 3) private fundraising and 4) grant schemes and
bursaries offered by philanthropic trusts, local government and specific funds such
as LEADER.
Over 380,000 young people participate in youth services, programmes and clubs
throughout the country.
As stated earlier, Clare Youth Service and their counterpart organisation in nearby
Limerick are unusual in the Irish Youth Work landscape in also offering education
and vocational training for which they receive funding through the Limerick Clare
Education & Training Board.
Delivery methodology is distinctive on account of both organisations experience in
Youth Work and the long-standing deployment of the Developmental Groupwork
approach.

Sports Sector

Ireland has traditionally had a weak state sector in comparison to European norms.
Voluntary provision in health, education and social services is traditionally strong as
a result. This is especially the case in sports where voluntarism is the norm in sports
coaching. Team sports and athletics are the dominant pursuits but due to changing
social norms and ongoing publicising of the effects of obesity, there is a growing
emphasis on active recreation and individual pursuits, such as swimming, running,
cycling and dance.
At regional level, Local Sports Partnerships have responsibility for the promotion of
sport and recreation as well as ensuring inclusivity of practice in relation to the
participation of persons with disability and those in lower socio-economic groups.
Locally, the Clare Sports Partnership has the following mission,

Increase participation in sport and physical activity across County Clare ensuring
sport becomes a normalised activity for all members of our community.
The vision for the current Sports and Physical Activity Ambition for County Clare
(Strategic Plan 2016-2018) is as follows:
The people of Clare set the standard in becoming one of the healthiest and most
physically active counties in Ireland".
Despite the strong cultural role of sport in Irish society, there are some worrying
aspects about participation levels e.g.
1. The ESRI Report Keeping them in the Game shows a widening socioeconomic gap as people progress through adulthood the less well-off are
more likely to drop out from sport as young adults and less likely to take up
new activities (see tables above).
2. The Childrens Sports Participation and Physical Activity (CSPPA) conducted
by University of Limerick, University College Cork and Dublin City University
shows that just 19% of primary school pupils and 12% of post-primary pupils
receive the amount of exercise recommended by the Department of Health.
One in four children is unfit, overweight or obese and has elevated blood
pressure.
3. Both studies are agreed that female participation particularly slips as age
increases in the teenage years.
There are clearly issues related to inclusion and sports participation whilst at elite
level team sports, there is much discourse, both publicly and within sports
organisation, about the issue of young player- burnout due to the focus on
achievement and winning. This is being countered by efforts of local sports
partnerships, youth organisations and health promotion bodies to widen the definition
of sport/recreation and to emphasise participation over achievement. Also, at elite
level, organisations such as the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and Gaelic
Athletic Association (GAA) are incorporating personal development goals such as in
the FAIs Emerging Talent Programme.

Despite these efforts, socio-economic status, physical disability and gender remain
as significant barriers to participation and retention in sporting and recreational
activity.
Approaches to Inclusion and Empowerment of those facing the Challenge to
be Included

The Role of a Significant Adult in Young Peoples Lives

Adults play an important role in the life of a young person. There have been a variety
of studies done on the effects of a young person's behaviour and the influence of a
"Very Important" non-parental adult (Beam, Chen, & Greenberger, 2002). There have
also been studies done on how youth see significant people in their lives (Hendry,
Roberts, Glendinning, & Colman, 1992). These studies support the important role of
an adult in the life a young person.
Such non-parent adults try to make a difference in a life of a child. Frequently they
are viewed as having a significant influence on the adolescent and on whom the
adolescent can rely for support. They may be extended family members, teachers,
employers, church representatives, coaches, or older friends (Chen, Greenberger,
Farruggia, Bush, & Dong, 2003). Non-parental adults are those people who devote
their time to have an impact on youth.
Given the high comparative levels of voluntarism and voluntary provision in Irish
society, significant non-parent adults are a common feature of young peoples nonschool lives, the majority working for sporting clubs and organisations but many also
in the youth work sphere.
Young people interact with non-parental adults differently from their parents in a
variety of ways. Characteristics of Non-Parental Adults include good listeners,
supportive, have a good sense of youth development, they seek opportunities for
young people and may advocate on their behalf. The adult can ensure that young
leaders have the opportunity to begin to experience elementary levels of leadership.
Non-parental adults challenge young people with the idea that they are leaders,
encouraging the idea that young people have influence over what happens in their

lives, their families, the school, the community, and beyond have the most success
(Van Linden & Fertman, 1998).
In the youth work context in Clare, significant adults have been trained in the
leadership and developmental groupwork process developed by Button and others.
In many ways, this training (or even the organisational ethos for those not yet
trained) distinguishes them from adult leaders in educational or sporting
organisations.

Developmental Groupwork (DGW) programme developed by Leslie Button

The ideas of Leslie Button have been deployed in Clare and much further afield for
almost half a century and have been profoundly influential in youth work practice and
training. He developed a method for both training youth workers and working with
young people that became known as developmental group work. He also made a
significant contribution to the development of active tutorial work in English
secondary schooling in the 1980s.
Button was a trainer of youth workers, teachers and social workers in the
Department of Education at the University of Wales College Swansea during the
1960s and1970s. He also wrote a seminal text on group work and its use in teaching
Discovery and Experience (Button 1971) and his Developmental Group Work with
Adolescents (1974) stands alone within youth work methodology as a coherent
system of theory and practice. Buttons methods offer a way of enabling young
people to develop confidence and capacity for self-agency.

Creators not Consumers Rediscovering Social Education

Another approach embedded in the Work of CYS is the notion that the young people
they work with must be facilitated to create the own world, not merely consume youth
work, sport or education. The CYS mission is Empowering Young People to Create
the Future. There are two main themes running through Mark Smiths 1980s book,
Creators not Consumers. First, there is a concern to encourage young people to get
involved in organizing things for themselves. This flows from a belief in the benefits
of this both for the happiness and self-confidence of individuals, and for the

strengthening of community life. Second, there is an invitation to workers to embrace

and explore their educational role.
CYS bring their educational and developmental approaches to their work in young
people. In many ways, they are enduring themes and techniques which are capable
of adaption to new challenges and changing circumstances.
For instance, in recent years, Irish society has opened up to reveal many mental
health difficulties for young people and there is a great challenge to address it, the
first step of which is destigmatisation. CYS has developed its Lets Go Mental
Programme and supported young people to be creators in their own addressing of
this crucial issue facing them.

Conclusion
The COURAGE project offers an opportunity to develop and share best practice, to
devise and implement innovative, non-formal but tangible results in the greater
inclusion of all young people in youth, sports and educational provision.
Embracing and deploying the positive impacts of significant adults, developmental
groupwork and a creator not consumer approach, CYS proposes case studies;
1) to adapt groupwork practices for a wider range of settings and
2) to further develop good practice in relation to outdoor education programmes

References
Beam, M. R., Chen, C., & Greenberger, E. 2002, The nature of adolescents relationships
with their "very important" non-parental adults. American Journal of Community Psychology,
30, 305-325
Button, Leslie, 1971, Discovery and Experience
Button, Leslie, 1974, Developmental Group Work with Adolescents
Chen, C., Greenberger, E., Farruggia, S., Bush, K., & Dong, Q. 2003, Beyond parents and
peers: The role of important non-parental adults (VIPS) in adolescent development in China
and the United States. Psychology in the Schools, 40(1).
Clare Sports Partnership, A Sports and Physical Activity Ambition for Clare, Strategic Plan
2016-2018
Dublin City University, University of Limerick, University College, Cork, 2011, The Childrens
Sports Participation and Physical Activity Study
Economic and Social Research Institute, 2008, Sporting Lives: An Analysis of a Lifetime of
Irish Sport
Economic and Social Research Institute, 2013, Keeping Them in the Game
Hendry, L. B., Roberts, W., Glendinning, A., & Coleman, J. C. 1992, Adolescents'
perceptions of significant individuals in their lives. Journal of Adolescence, Volume 15, 255270.
Smith, Mark, 1980, Creators not Consumers
Van Linden, Josephine A., and Carl I. Fertman, 1998, Youth leadership: a guide to
understanding leadership development in adolescents
Department of Children and Youth Affairs; National Youth Strategy 2015-2020
Department of Education and Skills; Further Education and Training Strategy 2015-2020
Department of Health/Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport; Healthy Ireland Get
Ireland Active! The National Physical Activity Plan for Ireland 2016