Mission Possible: We are the Winners!

In October we entered a nationwide competition to promote positive mental health in schools across Ireland. In conjunction with St Patrick's mental health services, each entrant had to create a 'Mission Possible' well-being wall. In competitions like this Youthreach's are often put in a separate category but this time our centre was placed in the same category as every secondary school in Ireland, over 250 of them.

Under the guidance of Conor,  one of our teachers, the students set about creating an art piece that captured the importance of mental health and wellbeing and the positive steps students could take to maintain their mental health. Our students designed a well-being wall, and a positivity tree, where everyone could write something positive on a leaf and place it on the tree.

In mid-November St Patrick's contacted Conor to announce we had won first prize. Everyone was thrilled and very proud to have our efforts recognised, and the excitement only increased when RTE got in touch and asked to come in and film a short clip with some of the students who'd created the winning entry. - Watch: news2day Tuesday, 28 November 2023 (rte.ie) -

The winning entries in each category will now be made into postcards by St Patrick's for their use in promoting positive mental health, which means our award-winning wall will eventually be seen by people all across Ireland.

Every cent of the €600 prize money will be spent on our students, by our students - we will let them choose to spend it on whatever they want. 

But the thing is, in many ways it wouldn't have mattered if we'd come last out of the 250-odd entrants.

In our Youthreach, we try to look after the mental health of our students all day every day. More and more young people simply cannot attend a regular, mainstream secondary school due to issues including anxiety, depression and exam stress. These young people are often very capable academically, but poor mental health prevents them from attending school.

In Youthreach NGGS, our staff are trained in Youth mental health first aid, which makes it easier to assist students with any issues they may have. Smaller class sizes helps students feel safer and more welcome, and the pressure to reach a certain amount of points in the Leaving Cert is removed; our students follow a modular based curriculum in which there are no big exams to be faced in order to progress.

We also regularly link in with Jigsaw, the national youth mental health organisation, to help us support the wellbeing of our students. 

Our goal is for our students to achieve a full QQI Level 4 Certificate, which provides them entry to a PLC/FET College. From there they can apply to almost any Third level College in Ireland, enter the job market or apply for apprenticeships.

A QQI Level 4 Certificate is a viable, practical and attainable alternative to the Leaving Cert and equips our students with positive options for their future. In Youthreach NGGS our students are central to everything we do - our centre is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our young people.

Their well-being is as important to us as their academic progress. So we'll keep entering competitions and keep looking after the mental health of our students each day.

Congratulations to Conor and all the students who helped create our winning entry - well done guys, we're very proud of you all.