FIVE Youth Project Friendship - Independence - Vitality - Engagement
Mencap NI has been awarded £49,869 from the RTÉ Toy Show
Appeal
To appeal means saying you want someone to think about a decision again.
grants for 2023 by
Community
A community is the people and places in an area.
Foundation Ireland.
This grant will fund the third edition of the FIVE project for young people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
/additional needs aged 10 - 18 in the Greater Belfast and Fermanagh/Tyrone areas.
The FIVE project (Friendship,
Independence
Independence means doing things on your own. Making your own choices.
, Vitality, and Engagement) offers young people with a learning disability/additional needs ages 10 - 18 opportunities to improve their physical and mental health and to develop skills to support their wellbeing in the longer term. It is based on the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, which are:
- Connect
- Be Active
- Take Notice
- Keep Learning
- Give
Over the course of the last two years, 139 young people aged 10 - 18 have benefited from participating in a variety of youth work based activities and workshops aimed at creating opportunities to build new and lasting friendships, contribute to their social development and understand the importance of looking after their health and wellbeing.
Parents of young people who previously took part in the FIVE programmes told us they saw marked improvements in their young person's health and wellbeing after completing the programme.
"Everything we saw indicated that this was an exceptional programme in its design and delivery" - parent
Mencap's Programme Development
Manager
A manager is a boss at work. They tell you what you need to do and give you support if you need it.
for Youth and Communities, Mikhaila Woods said:
"We are delighted to be one of the organisations receiving this funding. Our FIVE project is providing opportunities for young people with a learning disability/additional needs to engage actively in meaningful youth work activities, exploring their health and wellbeing, building new and lasting friendships with others and enhancing their social development. This funding has enabled us to widen our reach to young people who have been unable to engage in any form of youth-based programming. This project has brought a lot of joy to the young people and we look forward to continuing to work with the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal and CFNI to provide this important and much needed programme."
About RTÉ Toy Show Appeal
Inspired by children, the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal works to bring the magic of the Late Late Toy Show to every child in Ireland. By funding essential support, health, well-being, play and creativity we aim to change children’s lives for good.
The donations to the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal, are received and managed by registered charity, Community Foundation Ireland with whom we work in partnership. For more information about The Community Foundation for Ireland, please see here: Community Foundation Ireland - For change. For Better. For all.
The RTÉ Toy Show Appeal has raised over €17.5million for children's charities across the island of Ireland to date.