Grassroots - Episode 8 Jigsaw

This is episode 8 of ‘Grassroots’. This short form radio series is an Athena Media funded through the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Sound and Vision Scheme. Radio producers Lisa Essuman and Robert Hope travelled the country looking for local initiatives that are fuelling positive change from the ground up. This episode was recorded in Galway and is the final episode of Grassroots. The focus is on young people and the challenge of youth mental health. Jigsaw is a community action project run by Headstrong the National Centre for Youth Mental Health. We spent some time at their Galway project and the youth cafe there run by Foroige, the National Youth organisation.

Below is a text transcription of the episode.

Grassroots Episode 8 – Jigsaw and the Galway City Youth Café

00:00 (ACT: Live guitar music, various voices talking) Before I came here, I wasn’t very sociable, I didn’t have that many friends and when I came here I met a lot more people after I joined a group called the “Journey Project” and we’ve been working together for the past 6 months, and we’ve become very, very close so I’ve made many friends through that (short laugh).

00:30 (ACT: laughing, group chatter) Ciara: I’m Ciara and I’m 15. (ACT: guitar, shakers, chatting) With Jigsaw, they’ve made everyone know, no matter what it is, it’s okay to talk about it. There’s always going to be help and someone there to provide it for you and it’s a place where you can go and just let everything out but than in the youth café, when you come here they keep you off the streets and they give you something always to do, and it’s a safe environment.

01:00 (ACT: guitar, shakers, Phillip addressing group) Tara Gannon: The group today are moving to finishing off the song that they started to write and try wrap it up, its part of this journey group, environmental art group, that have been working together for over a year…

01:30 Tara: …So they need background music for a film documentary that they’re making and this is a lovely way for the whole project to wrap up nicely, and nice closure to it. I’m Tara Gannon, I’m the youth café co-ordinator for Foroige, Galway city youth café. (ACT: Guitar and Singing) The main ethos is that we get youth involved, between the ages of 14 to 18. In activities that they enjoy…

01:59 (ACT: Song continued) Tara: …It might be music, art, multi-media, there’s a real mix of young people within the group, that some young people have come in through Jigsaw and vice-versa that they’re using the Jigsaw service because they started coming in. (ACT: Song ends, discussion over chords)

02:28 (ACT: Guitar chords and chat) Daniel: The youth café is just somewhere to go to like, hang out with your friends. Whereas Jigsaw is more about if you have a problem, or you want to talk to someone. It’s just here’s more for the project side of things. I’m Daniel and I’m 16. (ACT: Group discussion about lyrics)

03:14 (ACT: Background conversation) Ciara: When I go into jigsaw, I have the one to one with my councillor Kate and I can talk about my problems than and the minute I leave, I know I can leave everything behind me. Walk into youth café and I have all my friends to greet me and everything can just be left behind. (ACT: Conversation, music)

03:35 (ACT: Music) John Fitzmaurice: Going back, Jigsaw grew out of the youth café, “The Gaff” youth café, which was established in 2001. The youth café changed in that Feroige took on the running of the youth café and we’re fortunate in that now when we started in 2008, while we were very close by they were separate entities whereas now while we’re still separate entities we’re co-located we sit side by side and that’s important because young people come into the youth café for obviously different purposes, social purposes, personal development purposes but next door there is a more… established health service to provide more direct interventions around their own health needs and specific mental health needs .

04:05 John: I’m John Fitzmaurice and I’m the programme director here in Jigsaw Galway-Roscommon. (ACT: Chat and Music) Last year, over 680 young people throughout Galway city accessed the service. (ACT: Chat and Music)

04:35 (ACT: Music Continued) Marie Hehir: I’m Marie Hehir and I’m a support worker at Jigsaw Galway. Young people would drop in, I suppose around a wide range of difficulties or challenging times that they’re having at the moment. It would range from issues maybe that they’re having a school, maybe problems at home, within relationships, they would be between the age of 15-25. That would be both males and females (ACT: Chat and music)

05:05 (ACT: Music continued) Marie: We would find, that when young people come in that it might be the first time they’ve ever spoken to anybody, so we try and take away some of that overwhelming feeling, to make them feel as easy and as comfortable as possible, we talk to them, its about us been there to be able to support them and to work through what it is that they want to work through so that they can come out the other side. (ACT: conversation and music)

05:34 (ACT: Music and conversation continued) : First coming here to the youth café my interest was art but now I’m kind of focusing more on music. I’d never really thought I’d be learning bass before but you never know what could happen when you come here. I’m Naoise and I’m 16 years of age. The youth café helps teenagers of my age go through these transitions because it helps you find yourself and it lets you meet some new people and make some new friends in the process.

06:03 ACT: Music and conversation continued) Orla O’Brien: I’m Orla O’Brien and my son Naoise attends the Feroige youth café here in Galway. I just feel we are very, very blessed here in Galway. Certainly for any children maybe that have any diagnosis, any vulnerabilities or any mental health issues, I just think it’s a really safe environment.

06:30 (ACT: Music and conversation continued) Orla: And I just think there is a great buzz about the place, a great energy and you just feel that they understand young people, it’s just really a u unique atmosphere here. (ACT: Applause)

06:47 (ACT: Music) Tara: I think working together with Jigsaw and been in the same building is hugely important, and really does benefit everyone involved. It sends out a message to the community as well that we don’t want a stigma around mental health and that it’s there and we want to deal with it head on and been based in the same building as Jigsaw, it has proven to be very effective.

07:13 (ACT: Music continued) Ciara: All the staff, all the volunteers and Tara, they’re close to our age group and we can be ourselves with them but also, they’re kind of like different family members to us. Because you become so close to them, and they always provide different things for us to do, they’re always having a laugh with us, so they’re amazing (laugh).

07:33 (ACT: Music continued) Orla: It’s a free service which has just meant a lot to us, and I always say if I won the lotto I’d give them half my winnings because I would just love to see it continue and I just don’t know where we’d be without it, really can’t stress that enough, it’s very important to us.

07:52 (ACT: Music continued) Ciara: Once I come out of Jigsaw, I know I have a 50 kilo weight lifted off my back, I know that there’s someone in there who I’ve spoken to that doesn’t know who I am, but they know me just from me talking to them about my problems. But they help you take it off your back and just, when you walk out your just relieved and you know its all safe. (ACT: Music continued) When you come into the youth café its like a different world to school.

08:18 (ACT: Music continued) Ciara: Every single person that’s come in here or all the friends that I’ve made, they’ve all been through things themselves. So we can all relate to each other in some kind of way we don’t really understand, but we all understand each other (ACT: Music until end)

End