Ms Caroline Redpath:

As Mr. McMullan said, Youth Action is a practice-based organisation and employs people to work directly with young people in communities. He has also talked about some of the programmes we deliver. We have key priority areas of work and I shall highlight a couple of programmes that we deliver on a cross-Border basis with Youth Work Ireland. Like the South, we have a high unemployment rate in the North, with one in five young people out of work. The committee showed a particular interest in this issue during its recent visit to the North.

Mr. McMullan talked about the cross-Border apprenticeship programme which employed 43 young people from across Derry-Londonderry, Donegal, Monaghan, Fermanagh and Belfast for 18 months. They completed a level 3 youth work apprenticeship programme which was recognised by the Department of Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland. Obviously, they accessed a training grant, but we secured external funding from the International Fund for Ireland and The Atlantic Philanthropies. Both organisations have been very supportive. A key aspect of the programme is to increase the employability of young people. Obviously, they learn about turning up for work on time, how to fill in time sheets and about youth work. The programme delivers good and effective youth work opportunities to young people. As Mr. McMullan said, it is about young people learning about life, helps them to be hopeful, optimistic and interested in their surroundings and encourages them to participate in their community and community events. The good thing about the programme is that young people can avail of a community placement and thus become involved in youth work. Obviously, they must do so to gain their qualification.

Another key aspect is that we introduce all of the themes of peace building. The publication at the back of our legacy pack has been a great resource for us. As members will be aware and understand, we need people to tell each other their story, understand it, know how they feel and their attitude to various matters. Mr. McMullan highlighted the flags issue. Our document has been a brilliant resource for us, as it helps young people to tell their stories but also to listen to others. At the back of the publication there is a list of shorter programmes for young people that last for 16 weeks. They focus on the large numer of young people who are not in employment, education or training, which is a major issue for us in the North. We go through a process with these young people and try to engage them. We try to get them interested in undertaking a lot of confidence-building work, in addition to completing short qualification courses and learning essential skills. This is all done to give them confidence in learning and prove to them that they have an ability to learn. A lot of these young people would have issues such as to do with drugs and alcohol and we use specialised services to provide support for them. We also provide mentors on the programmes who work with them to help to plan and take responsibility for their learning.

A lot of our work is focused on the employability of young people. As Mr. McMullan and Mr. McLoughlin have highlighted, we provide a lot of support and try to get young people to engage in the political process. In the North 56% of young people in the 17 to 25 year age group are not registered to vote. It is very important, following the Good Friday Agreement and with a devolved Administration, that young people become engaged in politics and understand how it works. We also want them to become interested in local issues. Even though the statistics show that 75% of young people are not interested in politics, once my organisation engages with them they do become involved in local campaigns. For example, road safety is an issue in County Fermanagh of which Ms Gildernew will be aware. We have also got young people involved in larger campaigns in respect of public transport. The young people concerned worked with Translink which resulted in a discount card being provided for young people up to the age of 23 years. We can see how motivated young people are on such issues separate from a party political system. As Mr. McMullan said, part of our work involves giving hope to young people about their future, increasing their employability and confidence in what they can do and how they engage with others, thus building a better and more peaceful society.