City of Dublin Youth Service Board

Comhairle Le Leas Óige (later re-named City of Dublin Youth Service Board) was established in 1942 as a sub-committee of the City of Dublin Vocational Educational Committee.

Dublin in the 1940s was a far cry from the sprawling prosperous conurbation of today. To live there, particularly in the inner city, was to dwell in neighbourhoods dogged by grinding poverty, high unemployment and dismal living conditions.

For young people brought up in the poverty-pocked city tenements, life was very tough. Many left primary school with insufficient skills and few opportunities to gain meaningful employment. A tiny proportion went on to secondary education.

It was in this context that Comhairle Le Leas Óige introduced the Brugh model. Brughanna were located in adapted old buildings in disadvantaged parts of the city centre and later in large public housing estates in Crumlin and Donnycarney.

These centres specifically set out to give young people practical vocational skills in carpentry, metal work, leatherwork, home economics, sewing and literacy.

Comhairle provided trained instructors. Evening time social and recreational activities were organised for the young people by voluntary leaders from the Society of St.Vincent de Paul and the Legion of Mary. The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin appointed chaplains to these centres.

In the 1940s and 1950s, youth activities in brughanna, as in other voluntary youth clubs, were organised on a single-sex basis. As uniformed youth groups and boys’ and girls’ youth clubs spread throughout the city, so too did the services provided by Comhairle, particularly in the training of volunteers and in the provision of instructors for skilled activities.

Changing Times

In the early 1970s major shifts occurred in youth clubs with an increase of mixed clubs and the establishment of purpose-built youth centres. However, significant changes were also happening in Irish society and these began to impinge on existing youth work policy in Ireland and on Comhairle Le Leas Óige.

In response to the changing needs of young people at the time, Comhairle instigated a number of pilot approaches to working with those who were outside the club system, referred to as "unattached".

In the summer of 1970 Comhairle funded a study of city centre youth sub-culture over a three-month period in Dublin. The approach taken was that of a participant observer.

This was followed by the partial funding of a full-time youth worker in Crumlin, in January 1971. These two initiatives were to have a profound bearing on Comhairle youth policy in the coming years.

The first confirmed the existence of a distinct category of young person frequenting the city centre - "unattached youth". The second introduced the concept of a full-time youth worker based in and responsible to the local community. In a short number of years both these findings were reflected in the structure of newly-established youth projects around the city.

Inevitably, the rapid change in policy involving the introduction of full-time youth workers into a hitherto volunteer-led youth service caused severe strains within and outside of Comhairle Le Leas Óige. Nonetheless, despite a brief lull in the further development of this style of youth work, the community-based approach recommenced, evolving into community youth projects managed by local people and employing full- time youth workers.

Running parallel with these developments were the greatly expanded support services to affiliated youth groups who also were growing in number and variety all over the city.

A wide range of services and grant-aid aimed at enabling the voluntary youth worker to provide the best possible service was introduced. In particular, the need to provide extensive training courses for the volunteer was prioritised, resulting in the formation of a training section within the organisation.

Despite the fact that Comhairle did not offer capital grants for premises, it nonetheless developed grant aid schemes that helped clubs to improve their premises through decoration and refurbishment.

In the 1980s the funding for youth work and Comhairle was very restrictive and because of a public sector recruitment embargo the staff complement was reduced. The service to clubs and groups continued but the arts programme and the youth resource centre in Herbert Street were casualties of the cuts.

Change of name

In its work environment Comhairle Le Leas Óige was known to all as Comhairle. In 1995, it was decided to change its name to The City of Dublin Youth Service Board. This reflected a more modern era and the need to have an instantly recognisable and understandable name. It has proved to be a wise move.

In the 1990s Dublin was struck by a major drug misuse crisis and through sustained efforts by communities and agencies pressure was put on Government to address the problem.

The National Drugs Strategy began in 1997 and CDYSB played a central role on Local Drugs Task Forces (LDTF) with regard to the prevention and education pillar of the strategy.

The subsequent launch of the Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund (YPFSF), and the introduction of development groups to plan for youth services in the eight drugs task force areas, was a key factor in filling gaps in youth service provision in Dublin City.

Plans were formulated using the earlier plans initiated by CDYSB from the Kellegher Report. The eight plans were funded at a cost of £1 million plus per region and began to change the face of provision of youth services.

To cope with the increasing numbers of projects and developments, the Department of Education and Science agreed in 2000 to restore the staffing of CDYSB to its 1982 levels. CDYSB has subsequently lead out youth service provision and new models of delivery based on integrated models working with community, voluntary and statutory agencies.

CDYSB played a leading role in the development of YPFSF at local level through development groups and at national level through NAC.

A core principal is that of operating in an integrated way with other agencies and the community and is observed through leading roles in ISP, NYWAC and working partnerships with City Development Board, Dublin City Council and the National Youth Council of Ireland.

With the dawn of the new millennium CDYSB was revitalised with more staff and funding resources to shape youth service provision in the city. The principal of working with the communities has and continues to be foremost in CDYSB planning.

The Present

Notwithstanding the wide variety and multi-faceted youth work programmes embarked upon, a number of core principles remain the cornerstone of CDYSB practice.

The organisation supports local youth groups, local management committees and professional youth workers in agreeing strategies for the development of local youth work programmes, projects and youth services.

This relationship between CDYSB and an individual youth group at local level has been a key ingredient in the development of all CDYSB services in Dublin throughout its history. This remains solid and constant.

The importance of the relationship between the young person and youth worker (whether voluntary or paid) has remained the fundamental belief on which CDYSB best practice is based.

Today, CDYSB supports an impressive diversity of programmes aimed at helping young people meet their social educational needs.

Increased emphasis on arts related programmes has in recent years, resulted in spectacular growth in art, drama, photography, dance, craft and music.

Likewise, in the training area, the need to provide training for the large body of volunteers and full-time youth workers in the system has resulted in a broader range of courses now being available.

In this respect, the changing nature of the times we live in is reflected in the necessity to provide training modules in areas like child protection, HIV and Aids awareness, sexual health and anti-racism.

A hugely significant development has been the establishment of a four-year course for 48 youth workers in Larkin College. This will lead to a BA (Hons) Youth Work from Dundalk Institute of Technology. It will be of enormous benefit to the 85 youth projects and services operated by CDYSB throughout the city.

The City of Dublin Youth Service Board through its parent body The City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee has been recognised as the most appropriate agency to develop and administer a multiplicity of new initiatives on behalf of various Government sources.

Development of support services to its affiliated youth groups - now numbering 300 - together with its community based projects and local youth services, provides a huge challenge to CDYSB.

However, with the committed support of the City of Dublin Vocational Committee, it is ideally placed to utilise resources necessary to provide a high quality youth service for the young people of Dublin.