Hilton Charity Ball

As The Hilton Worldwide Ireland's Charity Partner of the Year, we have been fortunate enough to benefit from their many fundraising events so far this year. As well as that, the wonderful Hilton employees have been volunteering their time in any way they can, from taking the kids on day trips, to installing a kitchen in one of The Club's locations and helping out with our Summer Project. 

Our next big event is the Solas Project Ball which will be hosted by The Hilton Dublin on October 9th. Tickets are €80 each and guests will arrive to a champagne reception, followed by a 5 course meal and live entertainment to finish the night on a high! This will be the first ever Solas Project Ball so as you can imagine, we are all very excited. It is sure to be a fantastic night, and let's be honest- who doesn't love an excuse to get dressed up?! So get your glad rags on as we would all love to see you there!

To purchase tickets and for information on special room rates for the night, please contact clodagh@solasproject.ie or yvonne.brady@hilton.com.

Time to Say Goodbye

The time has come to say goodbye to three of our wonderful Solas Project Interns; Andy, Laveda and Anne-Marie, who have been with us for the past year. 

They began working in The Club last year and since then have become a big part of our team which we will greatly miss. From the minute these amazing people walked through the doors of Solas Project, they have showed such passion and dedication to our cause which has been great to see. 

Andy worked with the Transition After Schools Club which is made up of 5th and 6th class children. This can be a difficult time for some young people as they are trying to deal with the transition in to secondary school, along with other difficulties they may have going on in their lives. We had a chat with Andy and he talked us through some of his highlights during his time with Solas Project;

"My highlights have been the consistent relationships I've been able to build with the kids... kind of like that family environment we talk about. It's really important, and unique to Solas Project I think. I've been able to get to know the children, and see them grow personally and socially, in competence and confidence. 
Also, the opportunity to do lots of different things, like sports, mentoring, life skills, homework, fun stuff generally, all as different ways to engage kids in the club and in schools has been great. Dublin 8 has been a highlight in itself. It can be a hard place to grow up I think, but  people look out for one another here.
The staff at Solas Project - just great people who are dedicated to what Solas Project does and they readily believe in people."

Laveda, who is originally from The Cayman Islands, moved here from Jamaica to complete her internship with Solas Project. As well as working alongside Andy with the Transition After Schools Club, she helped out with some of the Solas@School events, including Solas Business and Solas College. Laveda spoke of her experience with Solas Project;

"It's been a real pleasure getting to know the children. From moving past the initial wariness of our first meeting to knowing their likes and dislikes and various talents and personalities. There has literally never been a dull moment... Seeing their confidence and range of unique ideas was a great reminder of the depth of children's imaginations. You begin to feel the possibilities are endless and I think that's a very important platform for them to have... The staff and volunteers at Solas Project have been so supportive, committed and caring! They have all inspired, encouraged and challenged me to a new level of service and excellence which I hope to continue in the next chapter of my journey."

Anne-Marie also made the big move to come to Ireland from her home in Germany. For the past year, she has worked with the Junior After Schools Club which is our club for children in 1st and 2nd class. It is important for children at this age to have consistent support which is just what Anne-Marie helped to provide for them each day after school. Many of her highlights include seeing the children grow and learn new things throughout her time with Solas Project;

 "I have so many highlights with Solas Project! Two of them which stand out for me are when the kids started to ride a bicycle or learned to swim. It was great seeing them taking those important steps. And then of course all of their sweet moments, for example, when they would write you a card saying 'I love you'. I could keep going with many more stories, but those were very special for me. I just had an amazing and unforgettable time with some very special people!"

Thank you all so much for your hard work and dedication over this past year. From all The Solas Project Team, we wish you the best of luck in the next chapter of your lives! x 

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!"