Mid West Young St Vincent de Paul Day
The Society of St Vincent de Paul Mid-West recently hosted the annual Young SVP Day showcasing and celebrating the work of their young volunteers.
Young SVP is a youth development programme which aims to provide opportunities for young people to engage in social action in their own communities, encouraging personal and social development. It allows students to learn new skills, develop their understanding of social justice, give back to their community and gain experience of youth-led social action.
The programme is in its third year in the Mid-West Region, and it has grown so much that there’s already 32 groups from Limerick, Clare, Tipperary and Offaly taking part, with nearly 400 students attending the yearly event, which this year took place in Treacy’s West County Hotel in Ennis, Co. Clare.
The day was a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge all the young people in our communities who selflessly give of their time and talents to help others through the Young SVP programme.
During the day, the young volunteers not only inspired each other, but also had a chance to interact with SVP volunteers and hear from a guest speaker Noel Keating on the topic of spirituality and meditation. We looked at what inspires us to do good, and at one stage nearly 400 people in the room tried to meditate together, which one must acknowledge is a challenge!
Each group had a stand where they interacted with others, learned and shared advice on how to plan their activities and ensure they have impact.
We have much to be proud of in Co. Tipperary, as we had groups representing all parts of our county.
The group from Nenagh College continued their hard work again this year. Their group has grown and is now planning a donation drive to support Vincent’s shops in Nenagh. If you’re planning some spring cleaning over the next few week, do support their efforts, as the proceeds will go back into the local community to those who for various reasons find themselves in need.
Presentation Secondary School from Ballingarry have been hard at work all year, organising the Giving Tree to provide Christmas presents to their community. They also wanted to reach out to the elderly and organised a tea and coffee morning in their school which was a huge success.
Presentation Secondary School from Clonmel has been running a food appeal and supporting SVP for many years. Their conference continued strong this year again, and they decided to do an education project about wellbeing. After doing their research they organised a lecture and workshop for second year students in their school. They focused on mental wellbeing and ways of helping yourself and also supporting each other through day-to-day stresses. They were surprised to find that body image is a cause of much stress in the teenage population, so they brought this information with them to the Youth Day, where they discussed it with other Young SVP members.
CBS Highschool Clonmel continued with their traditional Christmas food appeal this year. They also organised a soccer tournament in school in aid of SVP. Afterwards they teamed up with Loreto Secondary School for a project that combined both fundraising and education. You might have spotted them busking on the streets of Clonmel a couple of weeks ago, and they’re now in the process of delivering presentations to Junior Cycle students in both schools on the topic of poverty and raising awareness of needs in our community.
This year the Loreto Secondary School Clonmel continued strong with their conference. They linked in with their local SVP to support the Giving Tree and make sure no child goes without at Christmas. After teaming up with CBS Highschool they jointly did research and prepared a workshop and presentation to be delivered in both schools. The girls also braved the weather a few weeks ago, busking and fundraising in aid of SVP.
Gaelcholaiste Cheitinn has been ding great work all year. They too joined the Giving Tree appeal at Christmas in aid of children in their local community. They also raised funds with a bake sale timed just right, in February when we all forgot about the Christmas sweets we’d eaten. One of their favourite things this year was linking in with a local nursing home and going for regular weekly visits, they feel they’ve learned a lot from the residents and they’re happy to have been able to do this kind of befriending project.
Edmund Rice College from Carrick on Suir has been supporting the local SVP for many years, and this year they’ve decided to start their own conference which consist of students from different years. The lads once again supported the SVP Food Appeal at Christmas, providing much needed support to those in need. They’ve since decided to do a befriending project where they would volunteer in a day care centre on a weekly basis and are really looking forward to this new experience!
During the day the students were also joined by SVP members who were impressed and inspired by all the work that has been done already. As the event was organised mid-year, there is still plenty of time for all groups to build on existing or work on new projects, as well as for other groups to come on board if they are interested.
For more information on the Young SVP Programme, please contact our Youth Development Officer – Ivana Kolic on 085 253 9696 or ivana.kolic@svp.ie.