Latest Laois Event: Laois Comhairle na nÓg annual youth conference

All Laois secondary schools represented at Laois Comhairle na nÓg annual conference

Laois Comhairle na nÓg annual youth conference was held on Tuesday 7^th November 2023 at the Midland Park hotel. Students from all Secondary Schools in County Laois were represented. Comhairle na nÓg is designed to enable young people to have a voice on the services, policies and issues that affect them in their local area. It gives them a platform to not only influence the development of new services and policies but also to work on projects to deal with current issues or problems facing young people in Laois. In light of the fact that Comhairle is for young people aged between 12 to 17 that have no voting mechanism to have their voice heard, members of the Comhairle na nÓg have the very privileged position of representing not only their own voice as a young person but also the voice of all the young people in Laois. Youth Work Ireland Laois is responsible for delivering Comhairle na nÓg in County Laois. 

Laois Comhairle na nÓg gets young people’s voices heard in two ways:

Working on young people’s topics.  
Acting as a consultative forum.

At this year’s youth conference, the young people chose Education as a topic to work on in 2024. During the conference the young people did a workshop on mental health. They discussed What mental health mean to them? World Café Method was used to discuss the three topics (Education, Selfcare, & Bullying) which were from the results of a survey that was circulated in schools prior to the conference. The young people enjoyed the day and learned a lot and came back with ideas to their school. This year Laois Comhairle na nÓg worked on a topic on discrimination and a podcast titled ‘If it wasn’t for….’ was made.