ShoutOut Featured on Pat Kenny Show

This morning ShoutOut was featured on the Pat Kenny Show, which featured a short report on a school visit to Portmarnock Community School last week. Shona Murray, from NewsTalk, accompanied four of our volunteers to bring the story to the airwaves, last Thursday, March 6th. Ruadhan O Criodain, Conor Scully, Catehrine Healy and Anna-Livia Hickey represented ShoutOut and delivered an excellent workshop to the students of Portmarnock CS.

Thanks to NewsTalk, Portmarnock CS and our volunteers!

You can check out the report at this link, from 39:00mins in. http://newstalk.ie/player/listen_back/13240/8365/13th_March_2014_-_The_Pat_Kenny_Show_Part_1

ShoutOut visits the Scouts!

We  paid a visit to the Scouts after receiving a request for one of our workshops.

Aughrim Street Scouts, located in Stoneybatter in Dublin, recently got in touch to ask for one of workshops. They were interested in finding out more about LGBT issues and wanted to ensure a supportive environment for young LGBT scouts. We were delighted to oblige and last Wednesday 29th January three of our wonderful volunteers visited the group and facilitated a workshop. It was a very positive experience with brill feedback from the scouts themselves and our volunteers. LGBT language and supports were discussed with particular enthusiasm shown form the scouts themselves  for their pride flag (pictured) which our volunteers were told was the biggest in the den! The group were kind enough to give our volunteers cute T-shirts too. At a time when the Boy Scouts of America still upholds a ban on "open or avowed" homosexual adults it is  encouraging and admirable to see Scouting Ireland take a proactive approach to LGBT youth issues to ensure a supportive environment for all their young scouts brothers and sisters.

Special thanks to Scout Leader Ger Hennessy [pictured left] for contacting us.

Irish schools now must have a policy about homophobic bullying

As reported in The Journal: Cyberbullying and homophobic bullying policies now mandatory for schools

The Department of Education has published new anti-bullying procedures to replace guidelines that have been in place since 1993. The Department of Education has published new anti-bullying procedures that are required to be adopted... Following consultation with parents and students, each school must develop its own individual policies before publishing them on the school’s website.

We applaud this much-needed policy change and look forward to delivering even more workshops this school year as secondary schools work to integrate the new policy framework into their school communities.

[icon icon="camera" size="small" style="none" shape="inherit"]Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdgovpics/6937835784/

Bullies: My SHOUT OUT Story

YouTube celeb James Mitchell of JamesMitchellTV caught Shout Out on Facebook and as he says:

Now naturally because I'm such a self-centered person, all I could think of automatically was "Oh my God, why don't I share my school experience with everyone?" Get the tissues, we're going to have a teenaged moment: nobody understands meeee! But actually I think because of social media and online communities like YouTube, Twitter and Tumblr, I think a lot of you watching will understand me, and will feel better knowing that somebody actually got through it.

No need to grab a hankie, but great to watch anyway: Bullies: My SHOUT OUT Story.