LGYM / Out Youth Dublin

LGYM, is a Youth Organisation that supports young gay and lesbian people. The opportunity to develop links with a similar organisation in Ireland was one that Causeway was keen to fund. The event occurred in early 2001, and is one of the first of its kind. Causeway hopes that other such programmes will be developed as the programme was of particular benefit for the young people at Out Youth Dublin, since young gay and lesbian people in Ireland suffer from a much higher level of homophobia than their English counterparts.

Thematically, the programme was designed to explore cultural issues and to use art and leisure as the canvas to develop team building and personal confidence. As the young people were mostly in their late teens, early twenties, they were intrinsically involved in the organisation of the programme. The democratic nature of their planning process also gave them the chance to develop concepts of team-work and notions of behavioural issues within the context of the group.

Whilst the strongly religious nature of Irish society confirmed the suspicions that the English young people held, it did give them the chance to discuss with their Irish peers the different means by which the Irish (and English) dealt with such antagonism. A culture of support was successfully established.

LGYM are hoping to repeat the programme in 2002 with a Glaswegian group as well but the nature of their organisations makes match funding particularly difficult to find (especially so for the Irish). In addition, the majority of Gay and Lesbian Youth Organisations are run by part-time volunteers (due to the lack of public money) making it more difficult to plan for a bigger project. Yet, both partner groups had been fired with enthusiasm from the success of the programme and have nothing but the best to say with regards to the input from Causeway.

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