Background & Consultation Objectives

This report details the findings of consultations with young people on Garda Youth Diversion Projects
(GYDPs). The key objectives of the consultations were to explore young people’s views and opinions on
how:

• GYDPs assist them to move away from and/or prevent them from becoming involved in criminal
  and/or anti-social behaviour.
• How important it is to young people that projects are located close to where they live or if they
  would travel to other areas in order to participate in a project.

Steering Group

•  An advisory group of representatives DCYA, Community Based Organisations (CBOs), An Garda
  Síochána and IYJS met in May 2018 to discuss the consultation with young people.
• It was agreed an advisory group of young people would be formed.

Young People’s Advisory Group

• An Advisory group of six young people who were current participants in GYDPs was established
  to help advise the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) on the consultation
  methodologies and process.
• The young people’s Advisory Group met on two separate occasions in DCYA’s offices to pilot the
  consultation methodology. The findings identified by young people from the Advisory group
  sessions are included in this report, as they did not take part in the consultations as participants.

Consultations

• Seven consultations were held in the DCYA’s offices in Dublin in July and August 2018.
• IYJS emailed all GYDPs to identify young people that would be interested in participating in consultations. Youth Justice Workers assisted by gathering and submitting signed parental/guardian consent and assent forms to IYJS
• In total, 41 young people took part in the consultations. Of these, 36 were current participants in GYDPs aged 13 – 18 years and five were past participants aged 18 years or over.
• Young people from the Advisory Group also attended consultations but were not consultation participants.

Methodology

The key methodologies for the consultations were:

• Poster walls of ideas and individual lifelines based on the statement, ‘The best things about your
  project.’
• Sticky wall exercise based on the question, ‘What works well in projects to help young people
  avoid being in trouble?’
• Sticky wall exercise based on the question, ‘What does not work well in projects to help young
  people avoid being in trouble?’
• Jotter page session on common categories identified through what works well/does not work well
  in projects to help young people avoid being in trouble answering two questions: ‘What works
  well?’ and ‘What should be changed?’