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Praise for SpunOut.ie
Come on, sing the praises of SpunOut.ie!
Last year SpunOut has seriously helped me change my life. I never thought last year would of turned out the way it did. From the moment I got involved with spunout, everything changed. I did a mini documentary which was shown to the President of Ireland at a Suicide Conference last March. Through SpunOut I got involved with a production company which led to recording a documentary for RTE which was shown at the end of August.
A month later I found myself standing in front of 300+ people talking about my battles with suicide and later that evening ended up on RTE six one news. In November I released a press release on world mental Health day and spoke on 11 radio stations and got my message out to over 500,000 people. Recently I recorded an advert to dis-stigmitise depression, which will be shown on RTE later this year.
If it wasn’t for spunout.ie none of this would of happened. Spunout has given me the opportunity to get my message out and to be heard. I’m finally making a difference. And hopefully with spunOut I can continue this for years to come.
Also spunout has helped me tap into something I didn’t know I had. Journalism skills!!!! I’ve become more confident with writing articles and recently wrote my first short story. I now write an article for my college magazine called “Not the only gay in the village.” And now journalism is something I could seriously see myself doing at some stage in my life.
Thank you SpunOut.ie
Ian, 21
'Young people know what's best for young people. In advocating this simple logic through its services and projects, Spunout = quality youth participation.'
Patrick Kearney
Writer and Director
SpunOut is an innovative and creative resource, reaching out to young people in their own language and in a medium which identifies their generation more than any other. It provides an opportunity for youth leadership training and action and empowers young people to develop their communication skills while providing information and support for their peers. SpunOut provides an attractive, accessible and fairly comprehensive forum on topics such as youth health, mental health, disability, equality, education and dealing with relationship issues... It's work deserves all the support it needs not just to maintain its services but to engage in further expansion and promotion.
Best of luck,
Bernardine nic Giolla Phádraig
Film Producer
"Console is proud to be a partner of SpunOut in working together to prevent suicide and make Ireland a better place to live..."
Best wishes,
Paul Kelly
Founder of Console
I have a confession to make...I only have eleven thumbs... But I think the fact that I would lie to such an extent reflects how awesome I think the new site is!
Andrew Gibbons, 20
'Spun Out is a valuable resource for young people - it has tremendous potential to develop as the national resource and to fill a much needed gap. Spun Out's value is that it is youth led and driven and provides the National Office with one of a number of ways of hearing the views of young people. We look forward to a long term successful partnership with Spun Out'
Regards,
Geoff Day
Head of the National Office for Suicide Prevention
SpunOut is a unique and valuable resource for young people and for anyone who works with and cares about young people. It offers pertinent, practical, and potentially life-saving information that is easy to access, fun, interesting, and trustworthy as well as opportunities to develop skills and make a positive impact in the community. For these reasons, we promote SpunOut through our ‘Craic’ volunteer programme at NUI, Galway, which involves delivering harm reduction and safer sex messages and health information using trained student volunteers in a social setting. The ethos underpinning the Craic project is to increase autonomy and remove any obstacles limiting individuals gaining information and skills to support the decisions they make. SpunOut helps us to achieve our aims.
All the best,
Cindy Dring
Health Promotion Officer, NUI, Galway
"SpunOut is not only a creative and innovative way of addressing youth issues, it is a initiative which showcases what true youth participation can and should be. SpunOut is clever in its approach and provides young people with valuable information and a chance to be a part of a wider social network. I have no doubt that SpunOut makes a difference in the lives of young people in so many different ways - long may it continue"
Lynn Swinburne
Health Promotion Co-ordinator, National Youth Health Programme
SpunOut reaches young people where they live, in language they understand, with information and support they need to achieve well-being and a real sense that they belong.
Tony Bates
CEO, Headstrong – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health
In a time of great change for young people in Ireland SpunOut offers a quality distinctive service. They are close to the issues that young people care about and at all times treat them with respect. It is a valuable resource for all our members and the young people they work with.
Michael McLoughlin
CEO of Youth Work Ireland
Social Entrepreneurs Ireland is delighted to support SpunOut.ie and its founder and coordinator Ruairi McKiernan. We believe that in today’s changing society SpunOut.ie provides a vital and authentic voice for Irish youth to speak out on the issues that affect them. SpunOut.ie is a dynamic, innovative and entrepreneurial organization run by young people for young people and as such plays a key role in enabling them to make active, informed and positive contributions to their peer groups, their local communities and Irish society in general.
Sean Coughlan
CEO of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland
“SpunOut - what it means to me”;
S: strong
P: powerful
U: unique
N: new
O: outspoken
U: unpretentious
T: thought-provoking
These connotations are just some of many I could use to describe Spunout. It is fresh, inspirational, youth-friendly and innovative. Most importantly, it is informative and tackles issues that affect young people and their mentors and parents. It must survive and continue to develop. It is a haven for the youth of Ireland and provides information about areas such as sexual health and third-level education as well as many other issues that affect us in our daily lives.
It can succeed where the government cannot, because it is more accessible and approachable. It is imperative that this youth media thrives, especially because it deals with very important issues like teenage pregnancies, contraception and STDs. It is didactic without being judgmental, puritanical or intimidating. It needs funding to do this!!!!!!!!!
It also gives young people a platform to speak out and be heard: It gives THE YOUNG PERSON a voice. It enables everyone to let their creative juices flow. It is also a good opportunity for people who wish to pursue a career in the areas of media, social studies or public relations, to name a few.
I conclude with this message: Read the Spunout articles, browse through the website, SEE FOR YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Megan, 16
