International community development conference

NUI Maynooth

An international community development conference was held in Maynooth
 on November 16^th with speakers attending from Russia, Scotland, Australia, Holland, Liberia, Belgium and Ireland.

Around 170 people took part and the event was oversubscribed. “It wasn’t all about programmes and structures for change,” said one participant, “but about taking time to think about the need for community development today to bring about social change.”

A good book to ask your library to buy -

If you’re looking for new perspectives on youthwork in Ireland, then a new journal maps out new thinking on this area of work.

‘Youth and Community Work in Ireland: Critical Perspectives’ was published recently by lecturers from Cork.

It is currently the only text that covers the theory and practice of youth and community work in Ireland.

The authors aim with the book to reach a broad audience including workers, volunteers, students, policy makers and academics in youth and community work and related fields.

It is, they say, “a key text for youth and community work degrees and related programmes in universities and colleges and a resource for youth and community work groups, organisations and projects.”

For more information and to buy a copy – or indeed to ask your local library to purchase your copy – log onto the publishers website Blackhall Publishing.

The authors Catherine Forde, Rosie Meade and Elizabeth Kiely are lecturers in the Department of Applied Social Studies in University College Cork and have published widely on youth and community work.