Seetec is delighted to be partnering with Ballymun Youth Action Project as part of their ‘Strengthening Our Communities Through Voluntary Support’ campaign. This initiative has been created to address the specific barriers to potential that affect Seetec clients and the communities where Seetec deliver support.
The idea behind the campaign is for each Seetec centre to assess specific employment barriers which their clients are facing, and which local organisations our Employment Advisors are consistently signposting people towards. Barriers to employment are different in every county and community Seetec serves. Ballymun, once an area perceived as having social problems, has transformed over the years into a strong, resilient community on the rise. However, substance misuse issues still affect a proportion of Ballymunners.
Ballymun Youth Action Project (BYAP) is a community-based response to drug and alcohol misuse founded in 1981 after three young people in Ballymun died from drug-related causes. Over its forty-plus years BYAP has played a huge part in providing holistic addiction services to a community in recovery.
This multidisciplinary team support detox, early intervention and prevention, parental support, individual counselling, day services, training in addiction studies, pathways to sports education with their boxing clever programme, family and friend support and community social groups.
Susan Howard, Employment Advisor for Support & Compliance in Ballymun, said: “In partnering and linking in with BYAP, we are learning more about how to help people in this community who are struggling from these challenges and may not be job ready for a while.
“In our own work with our clients, we work on a process of building, small incremental changes in an effort to build confidence and a sense of self-efficacy. BYAP’s recovery model works in much the same way, which is one of the reasons we’ve chosen to deepen our relationship with them. Working in the area, it has become apparent that we share many of the same clients or we have clients we could signpost towards BYAP’s services.”
Karl O’Brien, BYAP Community Addiction Counsellor, who agreed on the synergy in approach shared by the two organisations, said: “We work on the recovery capital model which is a recovery model that helps people misusing drugs and alcohol, or people at risk of misuse as well as family and friends affected by someone else’s substance misuse issues. The model looks at the many areas of people’s lives where they can bank confidence, bank support and build new skills to help them on their recovery journey. It looks at all the ways you can rebuild your life.”
Grace Moore, Regional Operations Manager for Dublin, said: “It was incredibly exciting to hear about BYAP’s pathways to skills and education programmes. The Urrus/BYAP training centre offer courses in conjunction with UCD and DCU in addiction studies from level 5 all the way up to postgraduate level 9. And the Boxing Clever programme, which offers people formal sports and training education, is fantastic.
“It’s vital that all our Employment Advisors are well informed about the wonderful work carried out by organisations like BYAP, and the opportunities and support we can signpost our clients towards.”
This is the first volunteering and knowledge sharing partnership Seetec has undertaken in a community where they provide employment services. However, the organisation will be rolling out their ‘Strengthening Our Communities Through Voluntary Support’ initiative in every county they offer services in. Through volunteering, Seetec’s employee owners are on a mission to deliver lasting social impact.