SpunOut.ie Blog

January, 2008

SpunOutters ready for action

Blog: Youth Board member Clare Herbert talks about the SpunOut.ie youth get together.

Article by : SpunOut.ie

The young engine behind SpunOut.ie got a hearty revving last Saturday, at a productive, inventive and highly entertaining meeting of the youth board.

Seven members of the board along with staff members Ruairi and Susan met for an inspiring brainstorm of where we're coming from and more importantly, where we're going.

The consensus was clear. 2008 will be SpunOut.ie's year. A year for new ideas, incentives and initiatives. A new year for new contributors (be it in journalism, creative writing, visual art, videos, photos or just about anything else you please) and maybe a few new faces on the youth board.

The planning meeting (minus brown envelopes) involved a re-evaluation of the chain of command to ensure that SpunOut.ie is truly youth-led. One of the challenges of working in an online medium is that one misses the human contact or just a friendly face. New methods of communication were discussed along with a firm commitment to meet up more often.

Dearbhail McDonald (Legal Editor with the Irish Indo) joined us in the afternoon, to offer her perspective on journalism, the youth press and the promise of SpunOut.ie. As always, her contribution was insightful, informative and highly entertaining.

Plotting, laughing, and sharing ideas with not a tie in sight, we left reinvigorated and ready (in so many words) to take over the world. This is the time to get on board. Spunout.ie is shooting for the stars. To get there with us, sign up now. (Find out how to Get Involved!)

Let me conclude with the words of Robert Kennedy:

"This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. It is a revolutionary world we live in, and thus, it is young people who must take the lead."

By: Clare Herbert, SpunOut.ie Youth Board

Get involved with us

Blog: Volunteer with SpunOut.ie and help make rockin' youth media!

Article by : SpunOut.ie

We're currently looking for online volunteers to get involved with the website in the following ways:

Youth proofers!

Wanna help ensure that SpunOut.ie stays up-to-date, funky and relevant to young people? We're currently looking for volunteers aged 16 - 25 to help youth-proof the website! If you can give 2-3 hours of your time over the coming month then please contact anna@spunout.ie for more information.

Write

We’re looking for youth writers with a passion for fashion, environment, youth activism, sport, music and more! If you want to have a say on issues of importance to young people, provide a humorous and original view of the world around you or inspire other young people to make a difference then we wanna here from you. Email anna@spunout.ie for more information.

Inspire others

Have you done something you're proud of?  Or perhaps you made a difference in your community and want to tell others about it and inspire them to do the same? Email your story to anna@spunout.ie

True life

Do you want to share a true life story that might help others? If so we want to hear about it! We publish true life stories that help demystify the problems that young people deal with and that encourage young people to think positively and ask for support if and when they need it. Email your story to anna@spunout.ie

A quick look back on the year that was for SpunOut.ie

Blog: 2007 summary and plans for the year ahead.

Article by : SpunOut.ie

Happy new year to all the SpunOut.ie friends and family. We’re well and truly ready for another big year at SpunOut.ie and we are now busy knuckling down to action.

2007 was a massive year for us. Some of the highlights and achievements over the last 12 months included:

 

  • Setting up and launching our new Galway office.
  • Hiring 2 new staff and commissioning freelancers.
  • Completing another re-design of SpunOut.ie, improving accessibility, including audio on articles and publishing over 200 new articles online.
  • Developing a range of SpunOut.ie video features.
  • Working with Galway One World Centre and MediaForum to run a highly successful ‘media for social change’ conference in Galway entitled Media Moves.
  • Coordinating the Tough Times national youth mental health and suicide prevention campaign including a brilliant launch event at Whelan’s in Dublin.

  • Gaining massive national and regional media attention including features and mentions on RTE news, Nationwide, Primetime, 2 FM, Today FM and in all the national papers.
  • Devising a new 3 year strategic plan.
  • Securing financial investment for the coming years from the HSE and a major philanthropic body.
  • Setting up a new National Advisory Network.
  • Winning a scholarship and participating in the GK3 event in Malaysia.
  • Winning an Eircom Golden Spider Award for ‘best community or charity website in Ireland’.

  • Youth Board member Ian Howley wins first runner up in Barnardo’s Helping Hand Award for voluntary work.

  • Completing the first phase of our new marketing strategy.
  • Participating in a range of networks including the Action on Suicide alliance, the National Office for Suicide Prevention’s mental health awareness campaign steering group, the Technology for Wellbeing group, The European Youth Press days in Belgium and Macedonia, The Irish Youth Media Foundation, the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland network and at numerous events, talks and conferences throughout Ireland.
  • We were also busy with all the usual promotional and outreach activities, developing partnerships and alliances, developing our policies, procedures and operating systems and the less exciting behind the scenes work of continuously developing Ireland’s best youth website.


Plans for 2008

2008 looks set to be the year where we really make our mark. Plans are well underway for a major expansion programme that will involve:

  • Hiring an Operations Manager and Youth Participation Officer.
  • Completing a major content and site review.
  • Starting a redevelopment process that will see SpunOut.ie feature more multimedia and activism related materials and resources.
  • Rolling out a new marketing and promotional programme.
  • Developing a new youth participation programme.
  • Setting up partnerships with like-minded agencies and companies.
  • Fundraising to help us meet our funding gap and prepare for ’09 and beyond.


What all of this means is that we’re not going to be sitting back on our bums. We want to turn SpunOut.ie into a world class website, reach and involve more and more young people and to make a real difference to people’s lives and to our country and planet.

After a year of hard slog and set-up we’ve got good foundations laid so now it’s well and truly action time.

Watch this space!