Report on the Programme of
Services of Dublin Lions Club
4th January 2008
Dublin Lions Club was formed in late 1955
and was the first Lions club in Ireland. Dublin was followed in
quick succession by Belfast and Cork, with both cities seeing
the formation of Lions Clubs.
Today there are Lions Clubs in all parts of
Ireland, with some 140 Clubs providing service across the
island.
Programme of Services of Dublin Lions
Club
We have an active programme of Service
which falls under three headings:
- The regular programme of Services, of
which Eric’s Party on January 18th is one of our
largest events.
- Support for the Homeless, where we
work with Focus, Simon, Threshold and the Salvation Army.
- The Alcohol Awareness Programme,
which is a practical initiative for schools to address the
issue of alcohol in Irish society.
Each of the three areas is discussed in the
following paragraphs.
The Regular Programme of Services
Dublin Lions each year arrange a programme
of evening entertainment for the less well off in our society.
This Programme includes:
Eric’s Party – When we host
some 450 homeless to a party in January. This event is
one of the more high profile services undertaken by Dublin Lions
and we partner in this service with the Guards from Store St.
and Fire Service from Tara Street.
Trabolgan- Dublin Lions join with
the other Lions Clubs in Ireland to arrange a weeks holiday for
1,000 senior citizens in June each year. This project was
originally centred on Mosney and was initiated to celebrate the
25th Anniversary of Dublin Lions
Lions Food Appeal: Again we join
with other Lions Clubs in this nationwide Food Collection for
the less well off in our society The Food Appeal is held over
two Weekends in December. Each year we are responsible for the
collection and distribution of in excess of €50,000 in food to
Dublin’s less well off, while nationally many million euro of
Food is distributed by Lions.
St Josephs Hospital, Clonsilla: We
arrange two services to St Josephs including a Christmas Party.
St Josephs is a long term hospital; for mentally and physically
handicapped women.
High Park/ Sean Mc Dermott St. Convent:
We arrange services of music and song with light refreshments
for the ladies in both locations each year.
St Mary’s, Merrion. In 2007 we
arranged three evening entertainments for the blind ladies in
Merrion including the Christmas Party when we arranged a Santa
to present a gift to patients and staff.
Royal Hospital: Dublin Lions pay a
Christmas visit to the patients of the Royal Hospital including
a gift bearing Santa-in fact two Santa’s to ensure that we do
not overly interfere with the timetable of the hospital.
Homeless projects
For some time we have
looked at the issue of Homelessness as an area that we wished to
play some role in helping to address a major issue in Irish
society. We decided that the best route was to work in
partnership with existing agencies.
In discussion with
Threshold a gap was identified in the support available for
individuals moving from hostel accommodation to their own
accommodation. While Social Welfare will provide on-going
financial support there was no funding available for these
individuals to buy essentials such as blankets, kitchen
utensils, etc.
In agreement with
Threshold and also with Simon and Focus it was decided that
Dublin Lions Club would fund a Lions Starter Kit for each of
the Agencies.We have distributed €5,000 annually each to
the three agencies, Threshold, Simon and Focus to meet the cost
of this kit..
.Each organisation will provide 100 New
Home Kits in cardboard boxes with our Crest. The kit will
consist of bed linen, kettle, toaster, crockery and groceries.
We are also working with the Salvation
Army in both York house and also Leffroy house to assist clients
to develop skills which will assist in making the transition to
being employed.
Alcohol Awareness Programme
To mark the 50th Anniversary of
the establishment of the Dublin Lions Club it was decided to
develop a programme focused on educating young people regarding
the use and mis-use of alcohol while also foster leadership
among young people. We partnered with Tacade, a specialist
educational charity in the area of life skills.
There are three major benefits attaching to
the programme:
-
This initiative puts a spotlight on
alcohol for young people
-
Peer Education builds a spirit of
leadership and social responsibility.
-
Lions are working to change how Ireland
as a society uses alcohol.
We have now successful completed the second
year of the Programme and have launched the third year of the
Programme with participation from other Lions Clubs within
Dublin.–Portmarnock, Howth Sutton and Castleknock., and active
interest in other Lions clubs around the country.
The Alcohol Awareness Programme is a Peer
Education initiative, which is targeted at Transition Year and
is designed to train the Transition Year students to deliver
classes on Alcohol Awareness to 1st year students.
The Programme has 4 key steps:
1/ Training the Teachers- This
consists of a 1-day workshop to familiarise teachers with the
material, followed by 2 evening workshops.
2/ Training the Peer Educators
- Transition Year pupils are invited to become Peer Leaders and
are trained over 8/10 sessions.
3/ Training younger pupils about Alcohol-
The Peer Leaders train 1st year using the materials
they have prepared. A teacher will always be present.
4/ Celebration-The
final part is recognition of the Peer Educators.
As part of the review
of the Programme we surveyed Teachers, Peer Educators and
Pupils. The following are some of the comments by teachers:
“The idea of
learning from peers was the main benefit. It is very effective
for students to be taught by their peers.
‘Students learned to respect alcohol;
the consequences of lack of respect towards alcohol and that
they have choices around alcohol.’
‘Many teachers also learned that peer
education is very effective’.
Comments by Peer
Educators included:
“I loved it. I think I may become a
teacher if this is what its like!”
“I learned a lot during my training and
enjoyed working with the 1st years. They would now
think twice about drinking.”
“I loved being involved in it. It is
great to give something back to the school and was very
rewarding to see how much the 1st years got out of
it.”
Comments by first Years
included:
“I have learned
that it’s not cool to drink and it’s dangerous.”
“It means way more when older students
tell us. They know what its like. I think we should have more
classes like this, it’s easier to learn stuff.”
Schedule of Schools
2007/8 Programme
The following is the
list of schools that have participated in some part of the
Programme for 2007/8. Some schools are now in the third year of
the programme. Two of the schools have completed the teacher
training but have decided to defer implementation until
September 2008
Our Lady's School, Terenure
St Louis High School
Synge Street CBS
Presentation, Warrenmount
James St. CBS
St Conleths College
St. Mary’s College
Belvedere College
Larkin
College
Portmarnock Community School
Castleknock Community College
Holy
Faith, Clontarf
St Mary’s,
Holy Faith, Glasnevin,
Under the Leadership of
Pat Connolly, The District Governor of
the Lions Clubs of Ireland, it has been
decided to actively promote this initiative through out the
country with all Lions Clubs being encouraged to roll out the
programme to their local schools.
Frank O’Donoghue
Secretary,
Dublin Lions Club
4th January
2008
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