A Silent Saturday Night?!?

Hey, Chelsea again :) sorry to drag you away from your lives to read my second blog on my time in Northern Ireland. Enjoy!

The day started with a nice calm coffee in the nearby cafe. Dillon and Andy were both acausted by what could only be described as a drunken elderly Cougar.
This then led onto a tour of the Crumlin Road Goal in Belfast. not only was the trip knowledgeable but also gave our imaginations to what belfast could of looked like and the things which had gone on. The trip was useful to know about when certain events stoped, i.e. the death penalty/hanging people and what had escalated from the hangings, i.e. the suicide of a young boy stopped allowing the young into adult jails.
We then went on  tour of the city hall. My first thought of this was "oooh dear!!" however there were no problems while we were visiting city hall. The tour had given me a bigger understand on Northern Ireland politically but also the events which happened within the hall and the halls they have to offer.
After a quick meal at Subway we then rushed onto a city bus tour, which had taken us all the way around belfast, mainly concentrating on the expensive places, i.e. anything to do with the titanic. however on the tour i had also saw the peace wall and all the inspirational quotes written along the wall, i can sadly say this brought a tear to my face.
We then went on to visit our final YMCA for the weekend. North Down has two different spaces, one located within a shopping mall is created to try to stop the ruckus within the malls and to give the young people a place to stay at for a while. after this space has closed the bigger more open space is opened for the night. a three story house with four different rooms for different activities. they do not have as many activities as they would like, however most the problems found for this was the building it would not be the correct layout for certain groups and activities. however it was shown throughout the amount of young leaders wanting to help out to show how well the current workers are with the young, shaping them into the new generation of youth workers.
  In addition to this the ride to the hotel room has to be blogged about. One of Andys friends had kindly offered to pick us up from the YMCA and drive us back. Not only was he being helpful but he was also a laugh to be with! it was joke after joke, Steven or Stephen was a good accomplice.
Overall my visit has been a life changing event and i cannot wait to come back and help out with the same YMCA's i have visited and MORE.

I WILL be Back

Crumlin Road Goal

Crumlin Road Goal

City Hall, Mayors Seat

City Hall

City Hall

Crumlin Road Goal

Chelsea Taylor

North Tyneside YMCA

posting on Rachel's due to account not working.  

Day 3 Northan Ireland

Day 3- Today we started off 10 o'clock by meeting Martine at the days hotel and then walked down to meet Andy at Cafe Nero, which was a funny morning for Andy and Dillon as a woman approached them haha, she was pretty strange for us she seemed to have been out all night and came straight to the coffee shop the next morning so you can imagine what she would be like haha. after we met up we had a coffee and started planning on what we were going to do today. So as it got to 11 o'clock we headed off to do the Crumlin Road Gaol which was very interesting in ways and good in information. The jail dates back to 1845 to 1996 we got plenty pictures of this place as we can show you in this blog. after that it was hitting on to half 12 we went to grab a bite at subway and then discussed what we were going to do next, we went to visit the City Center Hall which was interesting with the protest on the flags being put round. and a tour around the whole hall which was amazing so many stories of how it got bombed and burnt down and then built again and all the mayors of the past and present, As i say we have plenty other photos of the tours we did today so you will have a chance to see them at the end of this blog. After we had done them two tours it was time to head onto the City sites tour which we learnt lots about the peace walls there was a multiple selection of them it was brilliant and very exotic. And we seen plenty views about the Titanic and where the Titanic was based. After we had been through all the tours we headed off to North Down YMCA where Andy works, just before that we went for something to eat at this small restaurant which was lovely small place nice and quite, then we decided to head off the YMCA and see what was different about the northumberland YMCA and get a chance to talk to the young Volunteers like ourselves, they had tones to say i was surprised to hear on how many young volunteers weren't at all fussed about the protests on the flags and didn't really bother them. afterwards we got a chance to have a look round this YMCA and ask these Volunteers on how they got involved and if they enjoyed it and all them said yes of course they enjoyed it and this opportunity had changed there lives, because most kids if they don't go into the YMCA they would sit next to the little peer and just drink and do nothing hanging round on the streets. so after all we headed back to the Hotel and talked about what our highlights of the day was and what we learnt.

Hannah Elliott :)

The Visit to Ireland happening now

I thought I would give you a bit of background on the group of young people from England visiting the YMCA in Ireland this week-end.
They are young volunteers in their own YMCA's and range in age from 16 to 19. Dillon Hall and Hannah Elliot come from Northumberland YMCA, Chelsea Taylor comes from North Tyneside YMCA and Alec Taylor from Barnsley YMCA. Dillon, Hannah and Chelses are pursuing their Citizenship Award being facilitated by Alex. The youth worker with the group is Rachel Dyne from Tees Valley YMCA. Rachel is one of the growing leadership stars of the YMCA having engaged in Peacework initiatives in Bangladesh, India and Turkey alongside other seminars and workshops across Europe. Here day job with the YMCA is working with young carers.

Hannah, Dillon, Chelsea and Allex raised the money to fund themselves as well Rachel to go on the study visit.

Their hosts in Ireland are Andy Hamilton from North Down YMCA, Martine Mc Garry from Lisburn YMCA and Darryn Causby from YMCA Ireland, all in their early 20's and members of the YMCA's International Leadership Programme in Ireland, Wales and England.

As many of you will know this is YMCA England's blog that seeks to capture the experiences, in real time, of young people who engage in YMCA England's International programmes.

If you are reading this you are not alone. It is currently 10.00am Saturday here in England, today so far the blog has had 173 viewers from the UK, USA,Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, China, Spain, France and Nigeria.

Looking forward to hearing how todays programme goes.

Northern Ireland: It's not all about throwing petrol bombs!

Well, I won't go on about what has happened here as the guys have done a brilliant job at that. A couple of thoughts after yesterday. I have been to Northern Ireland many a time so know the difference between what is portrayed in the news and what it is actually like over here but I was struck by how much work the YMCA is doing in terms of Conflict resolution and reconciliation, and not just at a political level where a lot of people think it matters, but at the community level where it can actually make a difference to the lives of young people. Stephen Turner, the NGS of YMCA Ireland is tasked with, in my opinion, a difficult job. Running a national movement across 2 countries who have a violent past together. From conversations with Stephen, Geraldine and Sian (Belfast YMCA), Kenny and Brendan (Greenhill YMCA) the work that is being done, will make a difference and is making a difference every day they open their doors. These guys know what they are doing and are doing it well. I was also struck by how well Lisburn YMCA is delivering drop in youth clubs but is addressing needs of the young people that attend. One man was there with the young boy he supports who has ADHD and Autism, this gentleman, John, was telling me how much of a difference the YMCA has made to this young boys life and how he looks forward to a Friday evening to see his friends. Young people never fail to amaze me, how they learn discrimination and stereotypes but are prepared to unlearn these in order to make friends. At Lisburn YMCA, as with all the other YMCAs we have visited, Protestant and Catholic Young People learn to live in peace with each other. It is these young people that will change the world, one day...

This trip has answered many questions I have carried with me since I learnt how big the YMCA is. I would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who looked after us yesterday and took time out of their no doubt hectic schedules to talk to us. Thanks to Martine and Andy for organising such a wonderful day. I have to say; Alex, Chelsea, Hannah and Dillon are setting the bar high for future young volunteers.

From Dillon Hall

Hello its Dillon here I am not very good at writing and spelling so here I go. We safely land on Thursday at the Belfast International airport. We then meet Andy and a couple of his friends who give us a lift to the hotel. The drive to the hotel was well funny and I had a good time talking to Andy's friends, we then stopped at Tesco for some supplies, the only thing I bought was skittles and Dr Pepper. Today we went to the Belfast YMCA with Steven and Andy. When we where at the YMCA in Belfast we learned about to two real good programs that where run there, one was youth in government and the other was friends forever. They both seen like really good and I would love to do some thing like that in Northumberland YMCA. After that we went to Green Hill YMCA which to me was awesome I loved that they had volunteers from across the world come to this YMCA. We meet Joe and Sarah, they where both really cool and would love to find away to stay in contact with them if possible. They showed use around the building and ask many questions which we answered. After that we had a talk with the director and Steven about Green Hill and what they do there. After the talk with Steven and Kenny we thought instead of going to have a look around the town that we would stay and do a couple of actives with Sarah and Joe. The first activity was zip lining which at the startIi was bricking it but after the first time going down I loved it in the end I went on it three times, I loved it. The second activity was archery witch I can say I got a little competitive at, but my team won both times and I finally got a bulls eye so happy. At about six Stephen took us out for a lovely meal which I enjoyed very much thanks Steven :). After that we went to Lisburn YMCA where we meet loads of young people and volunteers. We are seeing the difference between the different YMCA I enjoyed talking to the young people and ask their views on their YMCA and what they would like to change about it,most of them said they would like to change the size of their building. I really enjoyed the whole day and I can't thank every one that help out the day enough.

And a big thanks to Ken for bringing us together as a group.:)



There we go this my first blog from Dillon hall, Northumberland Ymca usingRachael's account.

Northern Ireland Experience day 1 "YMCA, from young to slightly older ;)"

OK so this is my first blog, I hope it doesn't bore you all too much. Today we met Stephen Turner (Irish General Secretary) and visited 3 different YMCA's with him, all in different parts of the country. The first being Belfast YMCA where we met some research interns looking at how YMCA Ireland can measure it's outcomes and the benefits it has on communities. This work was really interesting and I cant wait for Stephen  to send me some of their research and see how we might be able to collate some evidence back home in my YMCA (Barnsley.) We then met Geraldine and Sian (sorry if I've spelt this wrong) who are responsible for the Youth Work programs ran at Belfast YMCA. It was interesting to see the kind of work that the YMCA engage young people in as the majority of their provision is targeted work due to most of their young people living away from the YMCA. They have some really interesting and inspiring programs that have clearly inspired many young people (Friends Forever and Youth in Governance.) We also met two of the workers from their gym who had some really interesting things to say about the vibes and ethos of the YMCA and how that is relayed into their work with gym members, with people often coming back to them due to their relaxed, positive and accepting style of working.
We then went to Greenhill YMCA which is an outdoor centre. There we met Kenny and Brendan who are both staff there working on reconciliation projects with both young people and adults. We got chance to have a good chat with them about their work and the issues they face on a day to day basis as well as some of their own personal views and experiences.We also met Joe and Sarah who are international volunteers from Germany and Canada. It was awesome to hear what they are doing and it was so inspirational to see people dedicate such a long period of time to their volunteering especially when they are so far away from their families. We had a good chat with them and then we had some free time so we got to go on the zip line and do some archery which was all a good "craic". We were all very grateful to them for giving up their time to entertain us!
Our final stop for the night was the drop in club at Lisbon YMCA, this was a fantastic experience and one that is the closest to my YMCA so far. I got to meet Lynn (again sorry if I've spelt this wrong) and all the rest of the staff and volunteers working there and see the passion they have for the work they do. They have a fantastic team there who all firmly believe in what they are doing. I met some awesome young people too and had some really good conversations about the YMCA both sharing their experiences and letting them know a bit about mine. Definitely some future international young leaders in that group! Really hope some of the young people I work with back home get to share some experiences with them maybe in Prague??
Overall today has been awesome, I've learnt a lot and met some really cool people. I hope to stay in touch and keep sharing our experience of our YMCA's. Bring on day 2!

Night all,
Alex Taylor
Barnsley YMCA
(Using Rachel's account because I don't have my own yet)