IFA’s Football for All now looking for new recruits

The Irish Football Association’s Football for All project is inviting new recruits to join their North West Youth Forum.
Christopher Barnaby, Dylan McCallion and Andrew Graham inside the zorbing ball at a recent Youth Forum day out at Oakfire Adventures.Christopher Barnaby, Dylan McCallion and Andrew Graham inside the zorbing ball at a recent Youth Forum day out at Oakfire Adventures.
Christopher Barnaby, Dylan McCallion and Andrew Graham inside the zorbing ball at a recent Youth Forum day out at Oakfire Adventures.

This is an exciting opportunity for 14-17-year-olds to get involved and directly influence the work and direction of the IFA programme, which tackles sectarianism, racism and many other issues affecting modern-day football in Northern Ireland.

The Youth Forum, created last year with funding from the EU’s Peace III initiative, has already proved massively successful, with participants gaining key life skills through engaging in a range of fun sporting activities and intensive workshops.

“The Youth Forum is a great thing to get involved in,” said Dylan McCallion, a Londonderry student who acts as a volunteer youth leader on the forum.

“We have a chance to influence decisions that can affect us directly, and I really enjoy getting to know people from other parts of Northern Ireland with a similar interest.”

New and existing members from Londonderry will travel to the Mid-Ulster Sports Arena in Cookstown next week for the induction day, where they will meet up with fellow forum members from the Belfast area.

And in addition to five-a-side football and other ice-breaking activities, there will also be the opportunity for members to have a direct impact on how Football for All is run.

Mary-Anne McNulty, the Irish FA’S Football for All development officer, said: “I’ll be leading a billboard campaign workshop on the day where the young people will get to show off their creativity and potentially see their ideas brought to life on the billboards of Northern Ireland.”

The induction day in Cookstown takes place on Tuesday, August 26. Transport from Londonderry will be provided, and after that the forum will meet on a monthly basis.

If anyone is interested, they can call in to Mary-Anne at level 2 of the Shared Future Centre in Irish Street, email [email protected] or phone her on 07730 763849.

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