First Regional Meeting (Report)

The South Eastern region of Breaking Through held its’ first meeting in the Springhill Hotel, Kilkenny on Friday, July 21st. 18 people attended from counties Wexford, Carlow, Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny. These people came from a variety of backgrounds including FAS, Youth Service, Community groups, Drugs Initiatives, Garda Siochana, Youthreach, Barnardos and Area Based Partnership Companies.

The meeting began with an input about Breaking Through.

The morning’s formal input was given by Martin Hayes, Clonmel Community Based Drugs Initiative. Rosemary Finane and Susan Barnes who run similar projects in both Kilkenny and Wexford were among the attendees and resulting from the input given by all there, a very clear picture was painted of the work being done in the region under the umbrella of S.E.H.B. A lively debate on the drugs problem brought the meeting up to lunch time.

The afternoon formal input was given by Marguerite Furlong who co-ordinates a project aimed at combating Early School Leaving in the Enniscorthy area of County Wexford for County Wexford Partnership. The initiatives undertaken as part of this project range from pre-school Mother and Toddler groups to group work with third year second level students.

The day was glorious. The venue was very comfortable and the food delicious. The informal discussions and debates over coffee and lunch were lively and entertaining. No definite decisions were made regarding out next meeting. Visits to projects, movement of meeting around the region, inviting the regions policy makers to our meeting were all discussed as possibilities. Marguerite is to contact people in September to see where they would like to go from here.