Louisburgh Foróige

Some tips for club that are about to open again for the coming year. They work for us.

Try to Always maintain the foroige guided ratio of adults to teens, that’s one adult for every ten teens at home and one adult to every eight teens while travelling. So what happens if you don’t have enough leaders, we suggest you don’t open. Protection of foroige teens should be your number one priority.

All your leaders (attending more than one night in the year) must complete the online garda vetting process. Training for new leaders is available so if you have just joined a club, ask your support leader about arranging this for you.

Parent/guardian rota’s for supervision are ok as people are permitted to attend club “once as a visitor” (under vetted leader supervision of that person while they are there) without having to complete the foroige garda vetting, however, it is much better to have a fully vetted parent/guardian that “wants” to be there 5 nights a year voluntary Than a parent/Guardian dragged in for the sake of it.

I can’t be a leader because my teen doesn’t want me to cos they will be embarrassed. Try this, if your teen doesn’t want you there, suggest it’s them that can’t join foroige because you’ll be helping the entire community. Almost all leaders have had to face that question but honestly it has never been an issue and in fact, even teens won’t admit it, they are somewhat happy having that extra security there too.

A club Bank account with detailed records must be kept, even if you only have 5 members, you should keep a records and club bank accounts. This will help you gain charitable status and also help your club secure grants and funding where available.

its not your club, yes you put a lot of work in, you’re there every night but your way of doing things is your way, and your way might not be the right way even if you have been doing it that way for the last 10'years, all leaders have opinions, some of them will work and some of them won’t, if a leader suggests an idea for something new, it should be given full thought regardless of how crazy it might seem at the time, who knows, the teens might enjoy a jelly throwing fight, sure you won’t know until you try it.

It’s not always easy to find the right balance when it comes to entertaining teenagers, an excited group of first years can quickly become a laid back group of third years and likewise the other way around and this is where trial and often error comes into play. Every teenager is different, every volunteer is different, no one can help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

Foróige is a wonderful opportunity for all young people to get involved in lots of exciting structured programs and simple community projects. Foróige is also a safe place for young people to just meet up and hang out.

Over the last few years the current volunteer caretakers of Louisburgh Foróige has earned our club a national reputation and we are humbled and honored when other clubs approach us for advice and to ask us questions, are our answers the right ones, are we really doing things that different, do we always get it right, hard to say really but one thing is for sure, the current team are doing an amazing job making a fantastic safe haven for the young people of the Louisburgh area to come and hang out.

We’re always looking for ways to entertain our members and we pride ourselves at been good listeners, if our members want to go watch a car rally, lets go, if they want to go visit a farm or go visit an island, lets go there too, if they want to hang out over a cup of tea and a cake, then lets kick back and do that too. if they don’t want to take part in Foróige got talent or the citizenship awards, well you know what, that’s just fine with us too. All we can do as volunteer leaders is encourage participation by explaining what is available, explaining what can be achieved from taking part, explaining what other young people are doing within Foróige and we let our members decide for themselves.

We love the Foróige discos, these are a great way for young people to interact with other people their own age, we simply see them as a very important part of positive social interaction and we can't wait for the next one to come around.

Our club is evolving all the time, we have doubled our attendance numbers year on year over the last few years and we have the most amazing team of volunteers keeping the show on the road. Good volunteers are vital to the success of any club and we have, what we see as, the best in the business. We go to great lengths to ensure our volunteers all have at least one positive role within our club, we make an effort to get volunteer nights out too because if the volunteers are getting on well together and enjoying club, then the teen will feel more relaxed around our leaders and are more likely to participate in club more too. 

This year (2016-17) we managed to venture into the unknown (to us) world of a senior member club and even though we only have a handful of older members at present this number is growing and we are attracting lots of local interest, so again to find the time to try offer this age group more of a Foróige experience we have now moved our current older/senior members into a different building on a different night of the week into a brand new club they can now call their own. This is new ground for us but we are ready to meet the challenge head on and our simple rule of listening to our members will be applied and we look forward to going to lots of crazy, exciting and fun places with this gang now too.

With September fast approaching, Louisburgh Foróige (Youth Club) will be opening it’s doors once again to the wonderful young people of the area. If you’d like to be part of the fastest growing youth organization in Ireland today then you really need to consider Foróige.

County Mayo has 59 clubs, combined together they had over two thousand members enroled for the 2014/2015 Foróige year.

Established in the early 1960's, Louisburgh Foróige is no stranger to working with young people and promoting youth participation. Our main goal 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.

This coming year we aim to further expand Foróige services is Louisburgh by working hard to try and attract more older teens to our club, Foróige offers lots of great opportunities to older members too.

Enrolment is open to all Sancta Maria students, and any secondary school student currently living in Louisburgh but traveling to another school. All   young people applying must be aged 12 to 18 years inclusive.

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.

Foróige meeting, 12/05/2015:            

This week Chloe took charge of the meeting. Lots on the agenda this week and with only two weeks left in the current year there is still lots of things to get sorted. Chloe read back the minutes from last weeks meeting, then Conor delivered the weekly PRO report and Brige gave details of what monies the club currently has.

A discussion took place regarding this years prom ball, and Mary reported that the Castlecourt will be hosting this again next year. We only had one member eligible to attend this year and it's hoped that we will have more next year, Mary also gave details of a citizenship project display night that will be hosted by Mayo Foroige on Friday night, the 22nd of May. This is where we get to display the start of our safety add. Filming on this will be starting soon.

Brige reported that our Hype bus will be leaving the square in Louisburgh at 3pm SHARP on Saturday with all members asked to be there at by 2:45.

Before free time, the leaders then opened the floor to questions and some great discussions taking place on a number of items. Members were asked to give there high point of this years club, Discos seemed to top the poll. Hopefully we can get more Discos in next year. When leaders asked for a show of hands as to who will be returning next year, almost all of the members raised their hand.

During TAB time tonight the members voted on who they would like to nominate for this years awards. There are 18 categories and the results will be announced at our first ever awards night in June.

A brief run down of the other items discussed this week;

1. Band on the Strand, entries now closed, 21 members confirmed, ALL plus one forms to be returned by next week.

2. Hype music festivals, entries now closed. Coach leaving Louisburgh at 3pm, on Saturday.

3. Bus's now in place for all upcoming events.

4, Foróige nation council have expressed great interest in out RSA road safety ad.

Foróige meeting, 05/05/2015:

This week Aoife took charge of the meeting. Conor brought the meeting to order and the minutes from last week were read back, Conor delivered the weekly PRO report, giving details of all our social media pages, good progress was made online this week. Mary gave feedback from the recent Prom Ball in the Castlecourt Hotel, a great night was had by all and it is hoped that Louisburgh will attend this event in greater numbers next year. In excess of 500 teens/leaders attended.

This week Mary also gave details of a Foróige Baking competition, more details available here, and she will be contacting the members that put their names forward to arrange this event. Good luck to all involved.

Brige gave all members, booked to go to Band on The Strand, their plus one permission forms tonight, these forms are to be returned ASAP. Members are reminded that whoever you bring must abide by Foroige rules and policies at ALL times. All Foróige events are strictly no alcohol events, this rule is enforced, without exceptions. If you weren't at this weeks Foróige and you need your plus one form then contact a leader or Chloe or Aoife for forms.

Before free time, the leaders then opened the floor to questions and some great discussions took place on a number of items.

It has been agreed that our RSA video required a separate meeting to finalize all the details so a date will be set for this over the coming week. We discussed our upcoming awards night, with almost all the categories now agreed on, nominations will start on this NEXT WEEK, the 12th of May.

A brief run down of the other items discussed this week;

1. Band on Strand, entries now closed, 21 members confirmed with forms for 21 plus one's now gone out.

2. Hype music festivals, entries now closed. Coach, tickets and leaders all now arranged.

3. Bus's now in place for all upcoming events.

4, Foróige nation council have expressed great interest in out RSA road safety ad.

This week Padraig, Lily, Conor and Aoife (all junior members/leaders) took charge of the meeting. Padraig brought the meeting to order and Chloe then read back the minutes from last week, Lily delivered the weekly PRO report, giving details of all our social media pages, good progress was made online this week. Chloe then gave details of her recent outing at the Tourmakeady color fun run, this was attended by over 300 Foróige members from across the West of Ireland, a great day was had by all.

Mary gave a detailed report of the clubs finances and also discussed lots of different items with the group, regarding items such as self respect while attending events like Hype, Band on the Strand and our upcoming prom ball. Mary also gave details of a Foróige Baking competition, more details available here.

Brige gave each member a statement tonight to bring home regarding monies owed for upcoming events, a special word of thanks to Brige for always looking after our book keeping and insuring same is detailed and up to date, we are so lucky to have such a dedicated leader within our club.

Before free time, the leaders then opened the floor to questions and some great discussions took place on a number of items.

Our sub committee then met briefly to discuss our RSA video. Lots of progress was made on this and we are all getting excited to see this completed. The sub committee also discussed our upcoming awards night, with almost all the categories now agreed on, nominations will start on this over the coming weeks. Well done to Aoife and Chloe for lots of great ideas this week.

A brief run down of the other items discussed this week;

1. Band on Strand, entries now closed, 21 members confirmed and we will be allowing "a plus one", we are currently arranging plus one permission forms.

2. Hype music festivals, entries now closed..

3. Bus's required for our three upcoming events. Aaron agreed to get prices and report back to the leaders.

4, Foróige nation council have expressed great interest in out RSA road safety ad.