And That's a Wrap!

Summer Project 2015 has officially come to an end. We have had an amazing time with our young people over the last three weeks and we are already looking forward to next year! 

After the initial excitement of the holidays from school dies down, it can become a bit boring for the kids not having anything to do during the week. This is why Summer Project exists. For three weeks of the Summer, from Monday to Thursday, we have activities planned for the young people involved in The Club. These activities vary a lot but they all have one thing in common, they are a lot of fun! 

Some of our day trips included; Zip-lining, Pier-jumping, climbing Bray Head, The Bigfoot Experience in Ardgillan Castle and Bog Jumping in Causey Farm to name but a few. We also held our annual Sports Day where the children were split in to 6 teams and played some classic Sports Day Games, such as potato and spoon race and penalty shoot-outs. On the rare occasion where the sun was out, we took advantage and had a day out in the park or at the seaside. 

Summer Project 2015 was a huge success but we couldn't have done it all without the help of our many wonderful volunteers. These three weeks can mean so much to these young people and we are extremely grateful for your support! 

Take a look at some of the pictures over the last few weeks below! 

Summer time with Compass

The vision of Compass is to ‘love every young prisoner in Ireland away from re-offending and towards a new life’. 

As the school finishes for summer in Wheatfield Prison, a lot of the young men we work with in our Compass programme find themselves with a lot of free time. Using this opportunity we aim to provide these young men with a variety of refreshing and engaging activities. 
Now, with the long summer evenings and the weather warming up a little, we have gotten the chance to host some football matches on the prison grounds where we bring in an outside team to play the young men in an 11-a-side match. These matches are always great fun, even if there is some healthy competition between the two teams! 

We also take this opportunity to continue with our music production programme which has proven to be very popular. CreateSound provide us with a laptop and production software to help the young men create their own musical track over the course of four hour long sessions. The young men involved in this programme begin by making their own tune, which some of the braver ones then develop in to a full track by recording vocals and/or rapping. This is a great way for these guys to showcase their talents and when their track is completely finished we can produce an MP3 file for them so they can listen back and share with their friends and family.  

At Compass we are not only operating in Wheatfield Prison this summer, but we are also part of the Oberstown Dentention Centre Summer Camp. We regularly attend the summer camp there with the music production technology and work with those aged 15-17 to create their own tracks. We find that this is a great way to have some fun with these young people and to keep them focused on something creative and rewarding. 

A Year With Solas@School

Solas@School is made up of three parts; Solas College, Solas Business and Solas Sports. This particular programme is run in conjunction with local schools and our aim is to keep children interested in education and to start them thinking more about their future and the different possibilities.  By providing fun in-school activities, we believe this can help increase student attendance and participation in school.

So with the summer holidays now in full swing, we've decided to take a look back over our year with Solas@School!

Solas College got involved in College Awareness Week at the end of November which involved going in to 8 primary schools to have an interactive classroom discussion about 3rd level education. Six of these schools also went on a trip to Trinity College Dublin where, after an introductory talk, they completed a treasure hunt style quiz and had a tour of the college. All of these activities are based around breaking down the perceived barriers some of these children may have towards going on to 3rd level education.

There were 9 primary schools and 1 secondary school involved in Solas Business this year, as well as 9 different business. Solas Business is our 'Dragon's Den' style programme where a group of young people are paired with a business mentor to come up with a new product or idea which they then pitch to the judges. The overall winners at the Community Final were St Audeons primary school who came up with 'The BullyBug', which was a small pocket-sized gadget to stop bullying by having a hidden camera and microphone to monitor a child's surrounding and make them feel safer. All of the ideas on the day were amazing and we were astounded by the confidence shown by all of the children while carrying out their pitch in front of a crowd of over 190 people, it can't have been easy!

Solas Sport was ongoing throughout the year with weekly sports sessions happening in 8 different primary schools. To mark the end of the year, we hosted a Tag Rugby Blitz where the children from all 8 schools and some of our corporate volunteers from Google, WebSummit, Savills and Maples & Calder gathered in Terenure Rugby Club for a day of sports and fun. With over 250 people there it was a great day!

It has been a great year and to top it all off , the boys from Francis Street CBS came down to The Yard on their last week in school to read out some Thank You letters they had written for us. We would just like to say how touched we are by their kind words, you're a great bunch! Check out their lovely letters below.

One of our Youth Cultivators, Amy Ryan, said:

"We are so incredibly proud of all the young people graduating from 6th class this year and we have really loved every minute of working with them. We wish you all the best of luck in secondary school, we know you'll be fantastic!"

Sporting Proud Triathlon

Solas Project is delighted to have been chosen as one of three children's charities to be involved in the Sporting Proud Triathlon this year on September 5th. This event caters for all fitness levels and is sure to be a great day out - whether this is your first triathlon or your 100th! 

When you choose Solas Project as your charity of choice, we are guaranteed to receive every cent raised by you and 100% of your registration fee. The money we hope to raise from this event will help us to change the lives of an additional 15 young people, giving them access to our After Schools Programme for a full calendar year. By providing them with purposeful activity in a caring and secure home-like environment you will have helped them to discover their abilities and their self-worth in order for them to overcome limitations imposed on them by their social and educational disadvantage.

Sporting Proud Triathlon 2014

Registration Details:

• The minimum fundraising target for an individual is €250 - this includes your €100 registration fee.
• The minimum fundraising target for a team of three is €500 - this includes €250 registration fee

An individual can enter and do all three legs of the triathlon themselves or it is possible to enter as a relay team of three and do a leg each.

There are 2 distance options on the day:

1. Sprint Distance                                                     

• 0.75 km swim 
• 20 km cycle 
• 5km run 

2. International Olympic Standard

• 1.5 km swim 
• 40 km cycle 
• 10km run 

For more information and updates on the event, follow the links below.

The Yard Crew

The lads in The Yard Crew have been very busy these past few months with lots of exciting projects on the go. The ultimate goal for The Yard is to equip young people with the skills and knowledge they need to gain employment and through personal development, identify their own life goals. 

The Yard Crew is made up of eight young men aged 16-23 and it is a four month long programme which involves learning how to build and repair bicycles, the art of carpentry and learning IT skills which will all benefit these young people in the workplace when they go on to employment or running their own businesses. As well as the confidence these young men gain through learning new skills, they also receive personal development coaching each week which aids them in realising their true self-worth and potential. 

In their woodwork classes, The Yard Crew take on projects of all shapes and sizes throughout the programme, building on their individual and teamwork skills. At the moment the big project they are working on is building a canoe, which is now starting to take shape and looks amazing! They also make beautifully handcrafted bowls, bottle openers, doorstops and pens. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the lads hard at work this week!