Foróige volunteers from all over Ireland came together in the Hodson Bay Hotel in Roscommon recently, for Foróige’s annual volunteer conference. Amy Keatinge from Tallaght spoke about the powerful influence that Foróige, and in particular the NFTE youth entrepreneurship programme, has had on her life. Amy’s self- belief really blossomed through her involvement in the programme and she learned skills for life, for college and for work. Amy is now proud to be Student Union President of TU Dublin – Tallaght Campus. Foróige has over 6,500 volunteers working in its 650 clubs, 160 projects and programmes, including Leadership for Life; Be Healthy Be Happy, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and the Aldi Foróige Youth Citizenship Programme, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. Foróige volunteers are essential to the organisation’s engagement with over 50,000 young people year after year.
This was the 49th annual Foróige Volunteers Conference, with 250 delegates from 22 counties enjoying a wide variety of guest speakers, workshops, and social events aimed at exchanging ideas to continue Foróige volunteers phenomenal work throughout the country. The theme of the conference this year was ‘Foróige Volunteers – preparing young people for a changing world’ and it also explored the future direction of youth work and best practice within the sector. Psychologist and Author Shane Martin gave the conference keynote address on the theme of happiness.
Caption: Wayne Travers, Barbara Brien, James Dempsey and Anthony Clinton attended from Tallaght.
