Roisín wins gold at Foróige awards
A local girl has won gold at the Aldi Foróige Youth Citizenship Awards for her project on mental health.
Roisin McArdle from Dillonstown won the award for the ‘It’s All in Your Head’ initiative which can be adapted to teach people of all ages the importance of maintaining positive mental health and improving peoples’ knowledge of mental illness.
Roisin lives in a young community in Dillonstown and was conscious of the amount of young people that may need support in relation to mental health. The initiative addresses the issue through self-awareness workshops with her Foróige Club, a Public Positivity campaign and a primary school mental health gratitude and mindfulness programme. From managing the initiative Roisin McArdle learned that you don’t need to be in a position of power to make a change to your community.
The Aldi Foróige Youth Citizenship Awards took place in Citywest Hotel & Conference Centre recently where over 2300 young people from throughout Ireland showcased their work in the community. A number of other young people and groups in Louth submitted projects to the awards.
The FYI Foróige Club ran a facebook campaign highlighting the beauty of diversity after they realised that their community lacked awareness of the meaning of diversity and did not appreciate the uniqueness of individuals. The group wanted to demonstrate how each person is different and that their talents and skills are what make them special. The group gave talks to groups in the community about diversity and being proud of who you are.
Dillonstown Foróige Club also submitted a project to the awards.
After a discussion about the improvements needed in their community, the members of Dillonstown Foróige Club felt there was a need to generate Christmas spirit in the local area. They noticed that, although there were festive events taking place, there was no event that involved the community as a whole. The young people decided to organise a Carol Service, and invite performers from schools and other groups in the locality. Jason Nolan from Louth learned about the statistics of cancer and the means of preventing it by catching it at an early stage to improve outcomes for patients. Jason volunteers in his local Cancer Society shop in order to support the fundraising efforts of the charity. He continues his support through participating in a 15km run organised by his school in aid of The Hospice Foundation.
Doireann McElroy, from Louth realised that a significant number of young people have body image issues, and has undertaken a project to address this need. After surveying other girls in her school, she found that over half of them were not confident about how they looked.