The inaugural conference organised by The Limerick City-wide Children and Youth Forum, in partnership with Limerick FC, will be held on Monday 7 April in Thomond Park as part of the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival.
Pictured above are Limerick FC’s Ali Abass and Prince Agyemang with Cathal Dillon, Mike Walsh, Damian Landy, Cora Foley and Dairine Cross.
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 conference will highlight, celebrate and share Limerick’s 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 is 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
• Share practical approaches for building resilience
The keynote speaker for the conference is 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 will give 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 are 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 want to highlight this,” said Cathal Dillon, Community Youth Worker in Southill and member of the Limerick City-wide 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 will showcase 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, a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor will MC the conference which we hope will be an exciting learning event for all.
For further information, contact Cathal Dillon on cdillon@southillareacentre.ie or 085-1757007.
Article Date: Monday 31 March 2014