Cherry Orchard Integrated Youth Service
This service is complementary to mainstream education and for the most part involves engaging young people through evidence-based programmes and activities to support them as they find their way through their formative years.
Outdoor Education
Our Outdoor Education Programme provides an opportunity for young people to be active and develop new skills through water-based, land-based and centre-based activities.
The benefits of this way of working supports young people to improve their resilience and problem-solving, developing communication and teamwork skills, discovering personal strengths and weaknesses, improving self-confidence, self-esteem while having fun. Activities include:
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Kayaking
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Hill Walking
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Cycling
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Canoeing
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Pier Jumping
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Sea Swimming
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Mountain Biking
Creative Arts and Media
Our Creative Arts and Media programmes are set up to allow young people to develop their skills through numerous art forms and media types. The types of programmes we run are tailored to the interests of the current groups that we are working with at the time. They cater for youths between 10-24 years of age.
Our programmes have something for everyone – for young people who like to be in the limelight (acting, dancing, singing, performing) as well as young people who prefer to be behind the scenes (camera, lighting and sound; writing, directing and production).
Our most recent big production was funded by the Arts Council called Capall Curra Horse.
Education Support Programmes
Mainstream secondary school does not suit every young person. There are many other options available other than leaving the education system completely at a young age.
We have been running our education support programmes for almost 20 years and our aim is to encourage young people to stay in education or training for as long as possible.
We work directly with all of the schools in the Dublin 10 area and we also work directly with young people and families. We operate programmes at primary and secondary school level. We also support young people with their career path after school which may include moving on to college, apprenticeships, PLCs, further education or training.
Community Events
We are delighted to host and organise a number of community events in Cherry Orchard every year. The Halloween Haunted House has become one of our signature events every year which is extremely popular. Our summer fun day which takes place in June is also a big hit in the local area and is always very well attended by community members.
We also collaborate with lots of other organisations in Dublin 10 to lend our support to many other community events and initiatives during the year. All of these events provide excellent opportunities for community members to come out, get involved, meet their friends and neighbours, engage with local service providers and celebrate all that is good in their community.
Programmes for New Communities
We are very conscious of the changing demographic profile in the local area over the past decade. We very much welcome new families moving into Cherry Orchard who originate from outside of Ireland and we have a number of programmes in place to help support families integrate and assimilate.
Recently we were fortunate to work with several new groups during our Arts Project – Capall Curra Horse which gave us an opportunity to bring children together from Cherry Orchard and Labre Park along with children who are living in a local direct provision centre.
Youth Mentoring Programme (Different Drum)
This is an Erasmus+ funded project. We have partnered with youth organisations in Malta and Estonia, working with young people from local schools including St Ultan’s, St Dominic’s and Caritas College.
This programme, among other things, has given our young people the opportunity to travel to Malta on an exchange trip and to meet up with youth groups from the other partner countries.
The programme works with the same cohort of youths aged between 10-14 years for its duration and they were selected by the schools. Therefore it is not open to referrals or applications.
Say hello to our Youth Workers.
