Cobh Community health project

What are Cobh YMCA's Community Health Project aims ?

(i) To provide or assist in the provision of education for people of all ages and in particular young people, with the object of developing their physical, mental or spiritual capacities.

(ii) To promote healthy living including emotional and mental wellbeing through the provision of information, education and activities.

(iii) To promote community engagement and citizenship, for young people,their families and other adults for the purpose of family support, community relations and active citizenship.

(iv) To relieve or assist in the relief of need experienced by people of all ages and in particular young people, who are in conditions of hardship or distress by reason of their social, physical, emotional, spiritual or economic circumstances.

(v) To provide support to YMCAs throughout Ireland, to promote partnership with the wider international YMCA Movement, including direct links with the YMCA in the Global South.

What were some of the highlights for the programme during the past year?

• 10 year anniversary events in December
• Seeing clients who are in recovery, complete courses in college and pass their exams
• Setting up a Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) to help ensure that young people are involved in giving feedback on how the services can be improved
• Seeing the success of the Recovery to Work programme and how it was able to assist people in recovery find a new sense of direction in relation to their careers
• Organising the Anxiety Management Programme and watching how it benefitted the participants.

How does your project try to capture or measure the outcomes for young people/the community?

Outcome Stars are used to map progress for clients. Where appropriate we document case studies.

What new challenges/opportunities has your project identified that it would hope to tackle in the future?

The abuse of over the counter & prescription medications is a growing problem which affects people of all ages and from all background. The project hopes to begin to help raise awareness of this issue in a community event in the near future. The project would like to support the YAP group to realise their dream of setting up an open-mike type event in Cobh.