Youth Wellbeing

The Youth Wellbeing Service is an integrated youth wellbeing initiative spanning youth work, health and wellbeing, community development, education and employment.

The service is developed in partnership with Headstrong, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health and is part of ‘Jigsaw’, a national response to youth wellbeing developed by Headstrong.

The Youth Wellbeing Service will be delivered in three phases.

The first phase puts in place a streamlined and integrated support system for young people built around current projects and services. A broad spectrum of adults already working with teenagers –  including youth workers, community workers, resource staff and teachers – are all being upskilled in assisting young people manage emotional and behavioural difficulties. These key staff will receive ongoing dedicated mentoring and support from child and adolescent mental health professionals.

The second phase of the service concentrates on expanding youth-friendly facilities in Ballymun and the capacity of young people to support each other. A youth café facility will be developed and peer mentoring and advocacy resourced which will further develop the capacity of young people’s support systems. This will be complemented by evidence-based family and parenting programmes.

The third phase of the service focuses on developing a community crisis response service for young people in significant distress. Research into internationally proven models of community-based crisis response services and a rigourous local case study provide the foundation for this service, advised by educators and youth services in Ballymun, by the juvenile justice system and by Headstrong, the HSE and Mater child and adolescent mental health services.