An Gaisce – the Irish President’s National Challenge Award – aims to support the development of young people, social fabric and the growth of active citizenship. Tess Martin writes about the ideas behind the scheme and some of the people working their way towards achieving the award.
The Gaisce Award is the Irish ‘President’s National Challenge Award’. The President’s Award, represents an invitation from the President of Ireland to young people aged fifteen to twenty-five to go that extra mile for themselves, for each other, and/or the community.
It’s not a competition, which means that everyone is a potential winner. The award is about agreeing a specific challenge and following it through. As you read this, there are 5,000 young people all round the country working towards their award.
Levels of achievement
An Gaisce aims to support the development of young people, social fabric and the growth of active citizenship. Participants aged fifteen can work towards a bronze award over a minimum of six months. The minimum age to win silver is sixteen, earned over twelve months. To win gold, participants need to be seventeen, the award earned over a period of eighteen months, involving more sustained effort.
The four areas of participation are skill, community, physical and adventure, and each participant must take each section. Typical skill acquisition could include computer expertise, music, or learning to drive. A community initiative could be learning first aid and so help save a life. Physical muscles could be flexed in learning to swim, or a team sport, while the adventure section involves planning and taking part in an overnight outdoor activity such as hiking, cycling or canoeing.
What kind of help is available for candidates? Participants can call on a designated leader, who can be a teacher, youth leader or adult, other than a family member. The leader’s role is to introduce participants to the scheme, explain its workings, agree together on an appropriate challenge, monitor progress, motivate as necessary, and sign off when participants have completed the challenge. Workshops and information sessions are also held during the year.
Transition year students
So what kind of initiatives are young people undertaking? Mary Gordon, fifteen, is a transition year student from Rathmines in Dublin. She volunteers in a charity shop each Saturday morning, is learning tunes on the tin whistle, plays Gaelic football for her school and local club, she runs, and attends the gym.
In the adventure section, Mary is joined by nineteen other participating pupils. They meet their leader each fortnight to plan their expedition, and have decided to walk from Marlay Park, Rathfarnham to a youth hostel in Co. Wicklow. Because of the numbers, parents and teachers are helping out, while Mary and her friends remain responsible for agreeing the date, booking the hostel and organizing food for the trip.
John O’Neill, sixteen, is a fourth year secondary student in Belmullet, Co. Mayo, and an enthusiastic member of his local football club. For his community work, John is coaching a juvenile team. This means he must arrive early for his own training to set up the equipment and bring his charges through a warm-up routine before joining his team mates. He also attends juvenile matches to encourage them.
In acquiring a new skill, John is learning wood turning with his uncle, a carpenter, and must produce a piece of wooden craft at the end of his training. In the physical category, he is doing weight training twice a week. John and fellow challengers are staying at Killary Adventure Centre, Co. Mayo in the adventure category. This involves booking, collecting the money, agreeing the programme with Killary leaders, and following through.
Orla Conlon, sixteen, is a wheelchair user. She is in transition year at school in Kilkenny, and for her Community project, has chosen to research wheelchair accessibility at her school. She is learning Spanish as her new skill, and has taken part in the woman’s mini-marathon earlier this year as her physical challenge. Orla is setting herself a further task in the adventure category. She is joining a group on a trip to the Wicklow mountains staying in a wheelchair accessible hostel in Glendalough. Her mission is to complete the seven-and-a-half miles a day around the lake in her wheelchair.
Silver and gold
Pupils at St. Mary’s School, Baldoyle, Dublin have entered in the Silver Award category. As a group, they’ve mastered the flute, become proficient in spoken Irish, learnt karate, camogie and swimming. In reaching out to the community, they have helped out with Cubs, Girl Guides and enrolled in the Irish Red Cross.
The young adults involved in the gold award are helping out in their community in a variety of ways. Participants are delivering meals on wheels, becoming youth club leaders, working in a homework club to help young students with lessons, volunteering in Special Olympics and in Third World charities, joining a church-based folk group and contributing to local heritage projects.
In terms of developing a personal skill, these gold award participants could form their own national band, as fifteen of them throughout Ireland are learning a musical instrument. Other imaginative choices include learning sign language, art, boatbuilding, horsemanship, chess, singing, drama, and joining the reserve Defence Forces.
At a time when we worry about young people becoming unfit, this group have embarked on a wonderful A-Z of individual and team sports. These include aerobics, athletics, badminton, basketball, caving, canoeing, cricket, cycling, Gaelic football, golf, gym, hockey, horse riding, hurling, martial arts, rugby, squash, swimming, tennis, and walking.
Hopeful journey
Finally, in the adventure section, many gold award contenders are involved in hikes and treks in countries as far afield as the Himalayas, South Africa, and Kazakhstan. A number are completing Santiago de Compostela, the missionary trail across northern Spain. Two participants sailed to Scotland and back, while two others rowed across northern Spain. Staying in Ireland, one group cycled from Mizen Head to Malin Head while another went on horseback through Connemara.
Back in 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson suggested that it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. 126 years later in 2007, young people in Ireland are proving the truth of this maxim. While winning an award can be a worthwhile prize, with An Gaisce contenders, the journey is the vital component. www.gaisce.ie
This article first appeared in The Messenger (October 2007), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
