yblive, Autumn 2009 - Out and About
“It’s Good to Talk” youngballymun’s first mental health and wellbeing awareness week 5-9th October
There are ups and downs in everyone’s life. We all handle feelings like stress, grief, sadness – as well as happiness – very differently. Life situations, like money worries, housing matters or a relationship break up, can lead us to feel sad, angry, or isolated. We often bottle our feelings up, especially if they are painful. If we don`t find a way to deal with our thoughts and feelings they build up to become a burden over time. It’s Good To Talk was all about emphasizing that everywhere in Ballymun people are there, they do understand and they care. Talking is key to positive mental health and wellbeing at every age and stage of life.
The week proved a huge success – here is a flavour of what we were up to!
- We were blown away with the entries to our young people’s art competition and the competition winners were presented with their prizes by Dr. Tony Bates of Headstrong at his lecture ‘ Why Some Find Their Way and Others ‘Lose It’ which attracted a huge turnout in the Axis Theatre on October 6th.
- Smashing Times Theatre Company performed a play addressing the issue of suicide to two audiences of young people some of whom are now going to become involved in our newly established Youth Advisory Forum.
- Telling Women’s Stories emphasised the importance of telling our stories. The Drop In Well and the Ballymun Women’s Resource Centre jointly hosted a gathering of over fifty women who were joined by author, journalist and director of the National Women’s Council Susan McKay to explore the theme of story-telling and health and happiness
- It’s Good To Talk is a true saying – long before you actually learn how to talk making sounds and connections with those you love is vitally important. Ready, Steady, Grow coordinator Mary Fanning joined a group of young parents in Ballymun Community Training Centre to look at all the ways parents and babies ‘ talk’ and interact and how important that talking is for both parents and babies wellbeing
- Graham Connon, psychologist with Jigsaw-youngballymun spent a ‘Chill Monday’ in the Reco working with youth worker Tracy Hickson and a group of young people looking in more depth at the topic of youth mental health and the range of services available in Ballymun
‘It’s good to talk’ Bingo
As part of youngballymun’s mental health and wellbeing awareness week in October 2009, Write-Minded service collaborated with the religion teachers of Trinity Comprehensive secondary school and Catherine McGowan from Jigsaw. Time was spent in the classes developing vocabulary around emotions/feelings and well-being in a variety of ways with 1st year and 3rd year pupils. This was followed by a giant game of vocabulary bingo on Friday, with special help from Mr. Jennings as our bingo caller. Pupils were rewarded with bonus prizes for correctly answering riddles and questions on the topic of emotions and talking. A great time was had by staff and pupils alike!
POBAL Early Childhood Care and Education and Family Learning Conference: 8th October, 2009, Sligo
Maresa Duignan, a youngballymun Board member opened the Conference with an address on ‘Life is a Learning Curve – A Brief Review of Key Challenges for Early Childhood Education and Family Learning in Supporting and Promoting Lifelong Learning’ and the closing address was given by Noirin Hayes former Chair of the Ballymun Development for Children and Young People which developed the strategy and secured the funding that underpins youngballymun. Noirin sends her warmest regards to all involved in youngballymun and has promised that she will visit us all in the near future.
youngballymun presented at two of the Conference workshops – Joanne Waters on ‘Promoting Quality Outcomes for Children and Families – A Community-based Approach’ and Eleanor McClorey on ‘Bridging the Gap – Emerging Approaches in Early Years Care and Education’ on the theme of the Learning Community.
