This was an amazing opportunity and supported my confidence and development within a work environment.
My Name is Francis; I am 17 years old, I am a current member of BYC and have been since I was 7 years of age. I live in an apartment beside BYC and found the club as my only means of recreational activity growing up. I love coming to the club to play with my friends and this gave me the opportunity make new ones also. I would run straight home from school, quickly change my uniform and race down the club so I could get in quick to meet my friends. My favourite memories of growing up in the youth club were being involved in various different sporting activities and summer camp trips to Wexford.
As I transitioned to the senior drop-in, I would actively get involved in the more structured youth work programmes, this opened the door for me to explore opportunities and look at potential career paths. one particular programme I was involved in was the work readiness one. This is a programme based over six weeks and I was then presented with an opportunity to go and complete a two-week placement with Arthur Cox law firm. This was an amazing opportunity and supported my confidence and development within a work environment. Another opportunity I availed of was discover university, this entailed attending National college of Ireland to undertake a seven-day course in computing.
These two programmes have completely changed the way that I am thinking about my future and the possibilities of what kind I job I would be able to get. I also believe that because of this, I will be able to avoid the different kinds of criminality in my local neighbourhood.