Current Topics

Kildare Comhairle na nÓg put Drug and Alcohol Awareness at the heart of their work in 2020 and 2021. Their actions for 2021 were as follows:

  • To survey young people on the accessibility of alcohol and drugs in their area
  • Positive messaging campaign on positive peer influence and positive healthy life choices

Comhairle members have worked tirelessly throughout the period of lockdown, meeting online every two weeks to carry out research, gaining input from professionals in the area of Drugs and Alcohol to support the development of a social media campaign to be launched in the coming weeks. The topic of the campaign is to make young people aware of the impacts of alcohol on mental and physical health, with the aim of making them think before taking a drink. The aim of the campaign is to give young people factual information on alcohol awareness in short snappy infographics. The infographics have been developed and designed by young people on Kildare Comhairle.

And never has work on the topic of mental health become more relevant than today, during the global Covid pandemic.

Previous topics
Kildare Comhairle continued their work on mental health in 2019. Peer-led mental health workshop were developed and  piloted  in some schools in Kildare. They have been raising awareness of positive mental health and support services available in Kildare by linking with local schools. They produced this brilliant pamphlet below which focuses on peer education in relation to mental health. It was launched in late 2019. It includes information on the small things you can do every day to mind your own mental health, signposting to national and local services, and best of all, it includes the ‘5-a-day for well-being‘ test – a way for you to keep track of how many of the Five-A-Day you’re incorporating into your everyday life, the aim being to try and include as many as possible into each day. You can measure your own progress on a weekly basis and hopefully find new activities that float your boat and to bring a small amount of joy into everyday life.

Kildare CNN Five a Day for Wellbeing

Kildare Comhairle’s key topic for 2017 was disability issues for young people. Their aim was to launch a public awareness campaign to support people with disabilities living in County Kildare. They linked with local disability organisations to guide their work. In addition, by linking with young people with disabilities and by using a variety of media, they aimed to make people aware of what it is like living with a disability in Co. Kildare. Here is their awareness video featuring Comhairle members stepping into the shoes of those with various disabilities and seeing and feeling the world from their eyes and their point of view. Comhairle members were in agreement that this was eye-opening.

In 2017 Kildare Comhairle continued their work from 2015 on getting a relevant Student Card for young people in Kildare with discounts on services and businesses in Kildare,  linking with the Chambers of Commerce of Kildare.

Their secondary topic was about exploring issues with access to transport (rural) for young people in County Kildare.  The Local Authority provided more funding to the Comhairle to help them to achieve this.

Kildare Comhairle na nÓg has recently been working on a new student discount card and creation of voucher booklets for all young people in Kildare, offering cheaper products and services in the following areas: clothes, sports, entertainment and food.

In 2014 they laid the groundwork for getting ‘Cool-Down Areas’ in schools in Kildare to support students who need a time-out from stuff going on in their lives.

In 2013, Kildare Comhairle na nÓg worked on a campaign called Give 5 Mins, which advocated for adults to give up five minutes of their time to a young person who may be going through a tough period in their lives. The campaign was designed to promote positive mental health. As part of the campaign, we made an inspirational music video to get our message across. They had wristbands, pens and posters designed which were sent out to schools and youth organisations in Kildare.