Orlaith Barrett describes her experience of being part of a St Vincent de Paul youth conference
Orlaith Barrett
As Transition Year (TY) students we decided to set up the Nano Foundation (St Vincent De Paul Youth Conference) because the St Vincent De Paul Society (SVP), which was founded in Ireland in 1844, is the largest voluntary charitable organisation in the country.
The focus of this charity is to work for social justice and creating a more just and caring nation. Through a wide range of services St Vincent De Paul help to provide practical support to people in need.
Our experience with the society, to date, began in Transition Year after Debbie O’ Halloran, the SVP Youth Development Officer for the South East, spoke to our year.
The idea of working with this project intrigued 50 students who all signed up to get involved.
We were all eager to contribute to our own communities helping the underprivileged, improve our communication skills, increase our confidence while gaining an insight into team work.
Our main Nano Foundation Youth Conference consisted of 11 students, all with our own roles and responsibilities. Throughout the year the three primary projects we completed were the ‘giving tree’, the ‘clothes drive’ and a project in the community which was a ‘paired reading club’ with primary school students.
Giving tree
The giving tree was held around Christmas time and our main aim was to collect as many toys and presents that we could give to those families locally, who struggle at this time of the year.
We promoted this appeal by placing star shaped age tags on a decorated tree in the reception area of the school. Senior students were encouraged, via intercom announcements, to take a tag from the tree and buy a present for their chosen age group. Further age tags were handed out to junior students, after we gave each class a special presentation on the giving tree, encouraging them to bring in suitable presents.
All gifts collected were taken to the local St Vincent De Paul Hostel, St Michael’s Hall, during Christmas week.
Clothes drive
After our return to school in January we designed and painted a bin in attractive bright colours to appeal to students and placed the bin in the Junior Social Area. We asked students to bring in their previously loved clothes, to be donated to the St Vincent De Paul shop in Wexford town.
We changed the mannequins daily from clothes donated by students and teachers alike and from the curiosity and interest created by the display the bins was filled to overflowing with all types of clothes. Two weeks later numerous bags were on their way for resale in the St Vincent De Paul shop downtown.
Reading club
Each Thursday morning our Nano Foundation committee and other volunteers from our extended TY committee walked to St John of God Primary School to participate in a paired reading club. Each week we listened to the second class students read their chosen books and helped them with their pronunciation and understanding. The conference members really loved working with younger children.
From our experience of the St Vincent De Paul Youth Conference each of us came to realise how fortunate we all are for what we have and how we often take simple necessities like clothes and food for granted.
We discovered that our community is giving, caring, considerate and supportive of others. We all got such an amazing feeling knowing that we have made some difference in our community by helping a motivated and considerate organisation.
The whole experience of being part of the Nano Conference has benefited us for the future – as we have all gained a new skill set such as communication skills, confidence and a realisation of what we can do for the community – all skills you cannot necessarily learn from a textbook!
The St Vincent De Paul Youth Day in Kilkenny in April 2015 gave us a valuable insight into the work of the different youth conferences in the southeast and all the work other students also put into their conference.
As outgoing committee members we all hope to help out the St Vincent De Paul Society more in our town in the future and it was definitely one of the most rewarding, overwhelming experiences of our lives. We learned so much and had fun in the process. I know for sure we will never forget our experience and we will take everything we have learned with us for the rest of our lives. We truly experienced that “for it is in the giving that we receive” (St Francis of Assisi).
*Orlaith Barrett was president of The Nano Foundation 2014/2015 in Presentation Secondary School, Wexford – one of 110 voluntary Catholic secondary schools managed by CEIST (Catholic Education an Irish Schools’ Trust).
