ABOUT LOUISBURGH FOROIGE:

 

Established in the early 1960's, Louisburgh Foróige is no stranger to working with young people and promoting youth participation. Our club has evolved over the years with many ex-members becoming adult leaders within our club. Despite all the changes, our main goal remains the same, and that is to, provide a regular, well supervised outlet where young people can actively take part in and contribute to the running of their own club, in a fun, safe environment.

 

Foróige is a Youth Club whose motto is empowering youth and enriching communities.

 

Foróige is the leading and most successful youth organization in Ireland and have been working with young people since 1952! Foróige work with some 56,000 young people aged 12 -18 each year through volunteer-led clubs and staff-led youth projects. Foróige currently operates in 26 counties in Ireland, with over 580 Foróige Clubs nation wide.

 

Louisburgh Foróige is one of 54 County Mayo Foróige Clubs which have almost 3,500 members combined. Foróige always encourage young people to have as much fun as possible in a safe environment. Louisburgh Foróige was founded in late 1960's. Our club has hosted several activities for children such as, a Halloween party, a Quiz night and a Christmas fair. We also held a carol singing service outside our local church in order to fund raise for our club.

 

You're in good hands. All current Louisburgh Foróige, full time, leaders have passed Garda vetting and have received, certifiable, child protection training.

 

 

Our club structure.

Our club is more than just a place where teens meet up and just have a free for all, while free-time/fun-time is a very important part of our club, here in Louisburgh Foróige we are very much behind the whole ethos of Foróige where the members themselves run a structured club, and all our young people have the chance to express their views and ideas at our weekly meetings, these meetings take place at the beginning of every club night with all our members having an input on club outings and events.

 

At the start of each Foróige year the members elect a junior committee, Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and PRO. These junior leaders then run the

weekly meetings with the guidance and full support of the senior leaders.

 

What is expected of our young members.

Respect for ALL is a MUST. You are asked to follow the club rules that are drawn up, by YOU the members, at the start of every year. Also, all young people wishing to join Louisburgh Foróige are expected to take part in the weekly club meetings, these meetings are a very important part of our clubs activities. We're all in this together.

 

What is expected of parents/guardians.

We would really love to see all parents/guardians taking a more active role in assisting leaders in the great work our Foróige club is doing. We are fully aware of what young people say, "oh no mum, you're not joining Foróige, I'll be so embarrassed", we've all been there, heard that, but without adult leaders, there is no club for young people to enjoy.

 

All we ask is that you GET INVOLVED in some small way to support the leaders. There are lots of ways you can help. If you can't attend weekly meetings, then maybe you can take on a background role, research suitable activities for a Foróige trip, help out with existing fundraisers or coming up with new fun, fundraising ideas, maybe you could help with club promotions, how about coming on a outing with us, have you a product or service that might be of help to our club. We're all in this together.

 

If every mum, dad or guardian, that has a young person in our club, just gave "two hours a YEAR" to our club it would be a great help to the full time leaders.

 

Help us make Louisburgh Foróige club the best it can possibly be. Contact us today.

 

 

How our club is supervised.

As with all Foróige clubs up and down the country, Louisburgh Foróige is run by a small group of voluntary adult leaders that give up their time to insure the young people of the area have a vibrant and fun club to attend. Foróige operates on a 10 teens to 1 adult ratio while at home, and 8 teens to 1 adult ratio while travelling.

 

Without adult leaders Louisburgh Foróige simply couldn't function. Currently there are over 6,000 voluntary adult leaders within Foróige in Ireland looking after almost 56,000 young people. Louisburgh Foróige committee/full-time leaders are Garda vetted and have received full, certifiable, child protection training.

 

 

What others are saying.

Sarah Haslam, a Youth Participation Officer working with Foróige Ireland recently wrote a article about empowering young people through participation, youth participation is more than just young people having their say, giving their opinions while others listen and then go do it for them. Youth participation is about young people actively having a real say and influence over decisions, it’s about young people working in partnership with adults and having an equal say in all aspects of the decision making process. Foróige aims to empower young people to participate in and influence the direction of their own lives and that of their community. By doing this young people gain the skills such as self-confidence, self-reliance, resilience and a greater capacity to take charge of their own lives and are linked into their community. (Read Sarah's full letter in detail here)

 

 

Social Media.

Personal use of cameras, mobile phones or other mobile devices during club meetings is NOT permitted.

 

Louisburgh Foróige leaders always encourage and promote the "correct use" of all social media websites. Regular discussions take place within our club about these websites. We follow very strict Foróige guidelines regarding all our social media use. All, full time, leaders within our club have OPEN ACCESS to club emails

and social media pages insuring all contact between Louisburgh Foróige leaders and members is open and transparent.

 

"Louisburgh Foróige leaders DO NOT engage in any private contact with members outside of direct club related questions or queries"

 

If any teen members or parents have questions, concerns or worries about social media websites then feel free to talk, in confidence, to one of our full time leaders. We may not always have the answer to your question but we have a huge network of people behind us, so if we cant help, we certainly can put you in touch with someone that can.

 

Please feel free to visit our club social media pages and keep up to date with club news and events. All the links are on our home page.