Donegal Youth Service (DYS) and the Donegal Children’s and Young People’s Services Committee (CYPSC) are leading a major initiative to understand the needs of children and young people in the county.
This Needs Assessment will gather information from young people aged 0-24, their families, and relevant organisations.
Donegal Youth Service and Donegal Children’s and Young People’s Services Committee are leading on the preparation of a Needs Assessment for the children and young people in Donegal from aged 0 – 24.
Lorraine Thompson, CEO of Donegal Youth Services commented “This is a significant project that will provide a baseline of information and data about the needs of our children and young people which will inform the work of the project partners and other stakeholders in the county for the next few years.
“We are working on hard on a very broad consultation directly with children and young people, their parents and carers, and with agencies and other organisations that work with children and families.”
Donegal Youth Service especially wants to hear from the children and young people themselves as well as holding a series of workshops in all parts of the county. A short survey is available for young people to complete, and there’s a prize draw with six €50 vouchers that will be drawn from all those that send a response to the survey.
There is a similar survey for parents and carers and DYS would urge everyone to take a few minutes to share their thoughts.
“We are determined that this work will be properly informed by the people that it is for so that their voice is front and centre in the final report,” says Lorraine.
Kate Wilkinson, Managing Consultant of Donegal based Aboutface Consulting Ltd. who are leading the project on behalf of Donegal Youth Service explained “There are three parts to the Needs Assessment – consultation with children and young people and their families, and groups, agencies and organisations that work and support them; the preparation of a County Profile that will bring together data and statistics that are relevant to children and young people and families in the county, and the third part is a review of published papers aligned to the consultation findings and the five national outcomes in the Young Ireland 2023 – 2028 strategy.
“We are delighted to be involved in this project which will be of such benefit to our home county.”
If you would like to share your views, please follow the links below to access the surveys.
There is a Prize Draw for the children and young people’s survey with the chance to win one of six prizes.
For children and young people: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DNACYPSurvey
For parents and carers: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MNYTKWY
The project is funded through the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth What Works fund.
There are nine project partners: Donegal CYPSC, Donegal Youth Service, Donegal County Council, Donegal ETB, Inishowen Development Partnership, Donegal Local Development Company, Donegal County Childcare Committee, Foroige and Tusla.
