Minister launches diversity toolkit for youth workers
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald was on hand to launch the National Youth Council of Ireland’s Access All Areas diversity toolkit in Dundalk recently.
Access All Areas is a collaborative all-Ireland resource for youth workers, which brings together the knowledge of 28 sector experts from both sides of the border. It is a “one-‘start’-shop” containing practical advice, facts and figures, needs and issues, checklists and more on topics including disability, ethnicity, membership of the Traveller community, sexual orientation, gender, mental health, early school leaving, juvenile justice and young parents.
The minister described the toolkit as “an example of cross-border collaboration at its best.”
She added that it “will prove to be an invaluable resource for everyone working to make Ireland more welcoming of young people and volunteers from all backgrounds.”
NYCI president James O’Leary said the toolkit is “a powerful resource for the youth sector.
“The young people here today made clear the difference that it has made to them when their youth organisations have gone the extra mile and taken the necessary steps – steps laid out in Access All Areas – to make sure they are fully included, and the value that this has brought to their lives and to their communities.”
Access All Areas is available online at www.youth.ie/diversity
