Summer anti-racism activities with Show Racism the Red Card

This Summer, we have been engaging with a number of youth services on both sides of the border in preparation for our Intercultural Summer Camp.  The camp which takes place in the beautiful surroundings of Greenhills YMCA in Newcastle Co Down will take place from 18-22nd August.We are currently engaging Youth Services in Dublin, Meath, Donegal and Belfast in a programme of anti-racism and global education learning and fun.  Among those involved are young people at Involve Youth Project in Navan, Co Meath and below is a report of their activities.involve youth 1Pictured: Young people who participated in the Show Racism the Red Card World Cup in Navan‘We had a great turn out and response to our World Cup Blitz that was inspired by our Show Racism the Red Card workshop that we had 9th June. On Wednesday 2 July we held a Blitz celebrating our choosen teams which were Ghana, Ivory Coast, Honduras and Columbia. In the week leading up to the Football Blitz we asked the young people to research our choosen teams and the countries in which they hail from.They designed posters covering information about these selected countries, sometimes discovering more similartities than differences.On the day of the Blitz we had 28 young people aged 11-15 years of age participate both on and off the pitch.We had young people from over 5 different countries and cultures join us on the day all of whom live in the Navan area.We have selected from this group of young those who were eligable to be put forward for your Summer Camp in August’.  Cabra for Youth have also been involved. cabra for youthPictured: young people who participated in the Show Racism the Red Card World Cup at Cabra for YouthYouth Worker Mary Carroll said: ‘On an extremely hot day in Cabra, 32 young people aged 10-14years turned out for the show racism the red card world cup football tournament. The tournament had been promoted by a group of young people who had helped organise it, and they were helped by Maz o’Reilly (DCC Sports Devleopment Officer) and Ian Hill (FAI)’.’The group worked hard during the summer in the youth service (Cabra for Youth), making posters and a banner which drew a lot of attention on the day. The bright coloured materials brought on lots of discussions about being more inclusive in sport and in general in the area’.The group of boys who will be attending the summer camp worked together on their displays. The group chose countries that people might not be familiar with to do their posters on. 1 young person collected facts on Bosnia-Herzegovina, another young person helped to look up famous people from this country too.  2  young people chose to collect facts on Iran and South Korea.As part of our drop-in, a number of young people helped to paint a big red banner, which was then used to hold the show racism the red card logo. By completing this banner in the drop-in it got other young people talking about the tournament and incidents of racism in their community. The young people agreed that more should be done to combat racism in Cabra.SRTRC also worked with youth groups in Inchicore and Crumlin. One of the issues highlighed is that young people from different backgrounds do not participate in youth services.  Through engaging the Loreto Secondary School, were explored the reasons for this and one result that the students in the school will interact with young people at the camp.Our Summer Programme is supported through Irish Aid, Ireland Funds and Newtownabbey Borough Council. 

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