Rural Young People Having A Voice  -  22/09/2007 ________________________________________________________________ Northern Ireland Rural women's Network joined forces with Youth Action Northern Ireland and Rural Community Network (RCN) to host two events for young people from rural areas of Armagh and Tyrone. The events were a great success offering rural young people the opportunity to discuss and explore the issues impacting on their lives in a fun and creative way. The first event took place in May in The Linen Green, Dungannon and aimed to find out what issues impact on the lives of young rural people and assess what they felt were the needs of young people within their communities. Through a variety of interactive activities various topics such as; transport issues, interests in drama and performing arts, lack of healthcare information and leisure activities and curiosity about people of other nationalities joining their communities were highlighted. This relaxed and informal fact finding session helped all organisations identify the needs of the young people and the findings were used to plan and organise a larger Interactive information event on September 22nd in Eskra Community Centre. This September Event included Interactive workshops on; ethnic diversity, health and stress management; hip hop dancing and disability awareness was attended by over 40 young people from rural areas. These included a workshop run by PHAB NI on 'Inclusion Matters' where the participants experienced sporting activities normally organised for people with disabilities. The Southern Area Health Promotion Department delivered a workshop on self-esteem, looking at stress and depression, followed by a relaxation session delivered by Tom Herron exploring alternative ways of overcoming these issues. The issue of cultural awareness was also explored and gave the young people an insight into the lifestyles of other communities and traditions from themselves. The hip-hop dance session delivered by Youth Action N.I proved to be another very popular workshop. It gave the young people an opportunity to develop teamwork encouraging young people to work together. There were also opportunities to participate in a games session with time to mingle and meet new people. All young people that participated in the event are currently involved in Youth Action Northern Ireland's Rural Outreach Programme. This project, funded by the Department of Education through the Southern Education and Library Board aims to increase youth provision in rural communities and improve the lives and opportunities of rural young people. One young person highlighted the impact of the event by saying "It's good to know that we have so much in common with people that we automatically see as different", while another said "I learned how to take time out from every day goings on and just relax". The partnership between RCN, NIRWN and Youth Action N.I helped to make the event such a success as all organisations involved recognise the benefit of a joint approach to lead to more inclusive rural communities especially in providing opportunities for young people. All the organisations wish to thank the facilitators that supported the event on the day and say a big thank you to all the young people that participated in the event and helped to make the day a success.