2022

And that’s a wrap for 2022 – check out this brilliant newsletter with all their updates for the year that has passed

2022 Annual Report

Kerry Comhairle na nÓg continued their work on Youth Mental Health in 2022. They had a very exciting year including day trips, residential nights, involvement with Kerry Mental Health & Wellbeing Fest, and so much more.

Their first meeting in person meeting took place on Saturday 19th February and everyone had great fun getting to know each other and planning the year ahead.

Launch of Kerry Comhairle na nÓg Annual Report 2021

After another successful AGM (the second one held online), Kerry Comhairle na nÓg produced this fantastic report to summarise their activities in 2021.

Read the full report here: Kerry Comhairle Annual Report 2021

News – Sept 2021

Launch of Creativity Competition

This year Kerry Comhairle na nÓg have been working on the topic of positive mental health, under the title Positive Mind, Positive Vibe. They believe that being creative can be very beneficial in maintaining positive mental health and so they want to encourage all teenagers in Co. Kerry to Get Creative!

The competition consist of 4 categories; Photography, Crafts and Sculpture, Literature, and Art. Entries will be accepted in 3 age groups; 1st -3rd years, 4th years, and 5th- 6th years. Please note, the competition is not limited to school-going teenagers, the age groups are guidelines.

Entries should be submitted via email to comhairlenanogkerry@gmail.com with a video or image of the art piece and need to include the young person’s name, age group and email address, as well as their school name (if relevant). There will be two winners per category and age group; winners will receive a €25.00 One for All voucher and runners up will receive art pencils.

Comhairle members enjoyed a brilliant team building day at Splash Sports in the Maharees, Co. Kerry. Getting down to work first with a meeting on the beach, the group enjoyed their day out at Aqua Park, a really good way to get to connect with each other after so many months of online meetings.

In the coming weeks they will be launching a Creativity Competition for teenagers in Kerry, as well designing and distributing information leaflets and bookmarks to all secondary schools students in the country.

Current Topics

Kerry Comhairle na nÓg are focusing their attentions on the following topic in 2021: Mental Health in young people. Specifically they want to address the effect that Covid-19 has had on them.

Over the summer, members have been sharing their Top 5 Movies & Books on  Instagram.

Positive Mind, Positive Vibe

This is the title for this year’s campaign, which is focusing on Youth Mental Health and combating the isolation caused by Covid-19. The group have decided on an online campaign with two elements. The first: a social media awareness campaign which is focusing on increasing their online reach, posting positive mental health messages, and a number of online workshops/sessions in conjunction with Healthy Kerry. The first of these was a Zumba session which took place in March and can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhf7G3qUO54 This tied in with their first online challenge, Kerry’s Fitness Fortnight, in which they encouraged young people to try a new physical activity every day for a fortnight.

The second initiative was Mindfulness Week. They collaborated with Silke Michels, a Mindfulness practitioner, who made 5 mindfulness sessions, specifically for teenagers. The videos were posted on our YouTube channel over the week and can be found here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeeNNBMio8NqPD__1Ewy2vg/videos

In September the group will run a creativity challenge and over the summer will post suggestions of books and movies for teenagers. In August and September they also plan on highlighting services available for young people in Kerry and will use the AGM as a platform to raise awareness of these.

Some of the group also completed the Our Fair Planet training and will develop a project on that during the summer. They are also hoping to link in with other Comhairle groups who are also looking at the topic of mental health.

Kerry Comhairle na nÓg launch their ‘Clean Beach Campaign’

Kerry Comhairle members have been rolling up their sleeves and doing their bit to reduce pollution by keeping their beaches litter-free. As part of their climate change topic, the group started with a clean-up on beautiful Banna Beach which resulted in an article in their local newspaper. You can read all about it below.

Kerry Comhairle na nÓg respond to Covid Crisis

Kerry Comhairle have decided to focus on the mental health and well-being of the young people in the county throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Recently they conducted two surveys highlighting some of the challenges young people were facing during Covid.  The group are interested in pursuing this further and hope to reach a larger volume of the young population in Kerry through local schools, local newspaper/radio and a variety of social media platforms.

At the moment there are two parts: a survey/poll to identify the variety of challenges, and the Comhairle’s response to the identified challenges. The response might entail each member sharing a video of what they find helpful; tips on sleep/stress/exercise/healthy eating/screen time/ideas or games to help overcome boredom etc. They spoke about setting up a challenge to share with others, similar to the current ‘5for5 run and donate’ or ‘the ice-bucket challenge’. Collaborating with other local agencies like Jigsaw and disability services was also discussed.

March survey on the challenges facing our young people during COVID-19
https://www.mentimeter.com/s/37e18ee9fe0febf4d6d5c4bf4be89182/5d0e69143ef5

April survey – Update on the challenges the young people are facing
https://www.mentimeter.com/s/0cb3741d21709c20059525b7f8db0af2/7e569d206eaa

2020
Kerry Comhairle na nÓg put Climate Action at the forefront of their workplan in 2020.

2019
They were working on a survey to find out where gaps in youth facilities exist in the county.

2018 
This year we are working on ‘Safe spaces and promotion of LGBTQ+ in our community’ and ‘Racial Stereotyping.’ Kerry Comhairle are linking with KDYS LGBTQ+ groups to do their research and collaborated with LGBTQ+ groups to run an event in July. Kerry Comhairle are linking with the local international resource centre  to run a workshop on racism and stereotyping which asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants can face when they enter a new country/community.

Congratulations to a number of our Comhairle members who were nominated for Garda Youth Achievement Awards.

Work already completed

Kerry Comhairle’s key topic for 2017 was mental health. We organised a mental health conference with speakers, workshops, activities, etc… for Transition Year students throughout Kerry. In conjunction with this, we also looked at how young people cope with exam stress. This is how we plan to do it: we plan to introduce the idea of school ambassadors – training by young people for young people – to be mental health ambassadors in their schools. Our aim is to produce a short web series of videos on coping with exam stress, study skills, tips for relaxation, etc. Our Comhairle members will then act as ambassadors in their schools to show the videos in SPHE and CSPE classes before the time of exams.

We held our 2017 AGM on 13th October in Tralee. To give you an idea of what goes on at an AGM and how youth-led it really is, check out our video below:

Over the past two years Kerry Comhairle na nOg have taken part in a number of exciting initiatives. On the topic of drug and alcohol abuse, they created ‘Hugs not Drugs’ wristbands, ran peer education stands in schools, and contributed to and helped launch a ‘THINK About Alcohol’ booklet. In 2016 they visited Dáil Éireann and a European Youth Event at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. They also organised a Fashion Show as part of the 1916 commemorations.

Here’s a little promo video about us:

Kerry Comhairle na nÓg tackled a new topic in 2015: substance abuse and its effects on young people. As part of this topic we produced a substance abuse awareness video.

We also hosted our #LetsGoMental2015 event on Banna Beach in October 2015. See some sample photos below and click here to read more:

Kerry Comhairle na nÓg  worked on the topic of Youth Mental Health in 2014. An exciting approach was  adopted – the young members ran a campaign to promote a training programme called “Mental Health First Aid”. This programme will ensure that mental health First Aid training is made compulsory for all professionals working with young people.

We also continued our work on sexual health and developed proposals and actions to address the lack of information for young people. We also worked on an Anti-Bullying campaign, producing a YouTube clip to promote the message to ‘Be an Upstander not a Bystander’.

Kerry Comhairle have also recently made a video celebrating 25 years of the rights of the child. November 20th this year marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the UNCRC – the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.