Meath County Library Service: Toys, Technology and Training Initiative

Meath County Council Library Service has just launched our ‘Toys, Technology & Training’ initiative.  The toy collection is designed to offer support to children and adults with learning difficulties, disabilities or more significant needs.

The collection was chosen by the staff of Meath County Council Library Service in partnership with therapists and other professionals working in the community.

Items in the collection are available for lending in Meath Libraries to appropriate groups/individuals. The service is entirely free, we just ask parents to register for a TTT library card and they can then request the items via the library staff or via our online catalogue.

The entire catalogue is here also: https://www.meath.ie/council/council-services/libraries/toys-technology-and-training

As part of the initiative, we will host an annual series of free lectures, recordings and workshops.

For up to date details of future talks and events relating to the TTT initiative please follow us on social media and/or email us and ask to join our mailing list at [email protected].

Launch of Tusla National Fostering Week

Today marks the start of Tusla’s National Fostering Week which is running from the 21st to the 27th February.

The public awareness and recruitment campaign celebrates the positive impact foster carers have made in the lives of children and young people and seeks to recruit new foster carers. Now in its third year, the campaign focuses on the need to recruit carers for older children in communities across Ireland. A local foster care placement will ensure a young person can maintain connections with their friends, sports, school, and community, and reach their full potential. The transition to foster care can be challenging for any child, but older children and teenagers are at a particularly important time in their development and an increase in foster carers in local areas across Ireland will ensure a young person can maintain these important connections.

Across Ireland 3,984 foster carers currently open their homes to 5,265 children.  In 2021, 213 new foster carers joined Tusla and 556 children entered foster care for the first time. Foster carers play a critical role in the child protection system and ultimately a key role in the wellbeing of young people.

To find out more about the campaign or the online information sessions, visit fostering.ie

Please remember to keep up to date with the campaign by visiting our social channels and following #Tuslafostering on Tusla’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels.

2022 LOCAL YOUTH CLUB GRANT SCHEME

Under the Local Youth Club Grant Scheme (incorporating the National Quality Standards for Volunteer-led Youth Groups), one-off grants are being made available to local youth clubs/groups to assist with their development needs including supporting administration, programme and services costs.

 

Louth and Meath Youth clubs/groups are invited to apply for one-off funding under the following:  Local Youth Club Grant Scheme 2022

 

Application form may be downloaded from LMETB website:

https://www.lmetb.ie/further-education-training/youth-education-training-and-services/local-youth-club-grant-scheme/

 

Deadline for receipt of completed application forms is 5pm, Friday, March 25th, 2022

 

Applications will only be accepted through email and submitted to: [email protected]

 

Postal applications will not be accepted

 

Applications received after this date will not be considered in any circumstances.

Funding for the scheme is provided by the Youth Affairs Unit, Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Safer Internet Day: CyberSafe Tool for Schools

As Safer Internet Day takes place today 8th February, Meath CYPSC together with Louth CYPSC and Wicklow CYPSC are working with CyberSafeKids (an Irish charity that educates kids on how to stay safe online), to deliver the ‘CyberSafe Tool for Schools’ to Primary Schools in these counties. Online safety has been identified by us as a key issue for young people and 98% of Irish Primary School Principals surveyed by CyberSafeKids* said that they considered online safety to be an issue in their school.

To support schools, CyberSafeKids has launched the ‘CyberSafe Tool for Schools’, designed to help schools to achieve a safer online environment in school communities. Thanks to funding from Rethink Ireland, CyberSafeKids is now offering 100 FREE places on the programme to Primary Schools in ALL COUNTIES, which involves a self-assessment tool, a report, a mark of good practice and bespoke consultation (normal package price €349).

The programme is available for Primary Schools to sign up here: https://www.cybersafekids.ie/our-tool/ or by emailing [email protected]. Although similar tools exist in the UK, this is the first tool of its kind in Ireland.

A short information flyer is available here. If you have any queries on this, please contact [email protected].

Minister O’Gorman announces consultation on next national policy framework for children & young people

On Thursday, 27th January, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, T.D. announced the launch of a consultation seeking the public’s views on the next national policy framework for children and young people.

Last week, Minister O’Gorman published the final Annual Report for the ‘Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures (BOBF) National Policy Framework for Children and Young People’.  The next national policy will run from 2023 to 2028 and will build on the successes of previous strategies in improving outcomes for children and young people living in Ireland. It will involve Government Departments working collaboratively with statutory agencies and services, and the community and voluntary sectors to achieve the five national outcomes outlined in Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures.

This is the first of a range of consultations that will be carried out in the design and development of this new policy framework and will help identify the key issues for children, young people and their families. It will help to guide further consultations over the development of the new policy.

Launching the consultation, Minister O’Gorman said:

I welcome this open consultation and hope that as many people as possible respond and give us their views. We want to hear from parents, from those working with and for children and young people and of course from children and young people themselves.    I would particularly encourage children and young people to get involved and have your say through the survey or the mailbox. Tell us what is good and what is not so good in your lives, and what you think would make things better.

This policy framework will set out the vision and priorities for the next five years, it will have a real impact on the systems and services that support children, young people and families. The knowledge and experience of parents and those working with or for children and young people will help us to develop a framework that delivers positive outcomes for children and young people, and will guide targeted consultations over the next six months.

Use the survey or send us your views through the mailbox – send in pictures or drawings if you prefer. The most important thing is to get involved and give us your views.

I am looking forward to seeing this policy framework develop over the next year. With the assistance of other key Government Departments and statutory agencies, our partners in the Community and Voluntary sector, and, most importantly, parents, children and young people, we will make the improvements and changes needed to ensure that Ireland is a great place in which to grow up and raise a family.

ENDS//

Notes to Editors:

The sixth and final Annual Report for the ‘Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures (BOBF) National Policy Framework for Children and Young People’ was published on 20 January 2020.

The design stage of the successor framework which will run from 2023-2028 has commenced and this consultation is the first of a series of consultations which will seek the views of all stakeholders in the development of the new framework. Guided by the responses to this consultation, as well as input from Government Departments, agencies and the Children and Young People’s National Advisory Council, more targeted consultations will take place over the next six months.

Like BOBF, the new policy framework is intended to support those 0-24 years of age, and will focus on the five national outcomes previously identified. These are:

  1. Active and healthy with physical and mental wellbeing
  2. Achieving full potential in all areas of learning and development
  3. Safe and protected from harm
  4. Economic security and opportunity
  5. Connected, respected and contributing to their world.

The new framework is being developed in parallel with the development of an action plan and enabling framework for the EU Child Guarantee and reporting to the United Nations Children’s Rights Convention. The integrated approach being adopted in developing these documents will inform the strategic approach to improving outcomes for children, young people and their families that will be pursued under the successor policy framework to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures.

It is envisaged that the full successor framework will be published by end of 2022.

You can submit your views up until Monday, 28 February, 2022 by completing the survey which can be found in the link below.

Further details on the consultation and the survey can be found here.