The founder of a youth website urges parents and those working with young people to use the internet to help understand the issues of concern to young people today
PARENTS ARE increasingly struggling to understand where youth culture is at in today's fast-paced world, particularly when it come to issues around sex, drugs and technology. At the same time, young people are increasingly turning to the internet for advice on a wide range of issues from mental health, sex and drugs, to education, employment and the environment.
Instead of being fearful of new technologies, the founders of one of Ireland's leading online youth websites, spunout.ie are urging parents as well as teachers, youth workers and health professionals to harness the power of the internet to reach young people.
Now reaching more than 20,000 young people a month and growing at a rapid rate, spunout.ie was the brainchild of a young team with strong values and principles who are passionate about giving young people a voice.
SpunOut chief executive, 30-year-old Ruairí McKiernan, explains that the award-winning online health and lifestyle resource provides a safe online space for young people to realise they are not alone in the issues they face, and that they can make a positive change to their own wellbeing and to the world around them.
He explains: "I'm a graduate of business management who had his mid-life crisis early on in life and I've devoted myself to promoting positive social change in this great country and planet of ours. My goal in life is to slow down a bit and enjoy the ride."
The website provides concise, youth-friendly information and support on a vast range of issues including relationships, sexual health, spirituality, healthy mind and body and personal safety.
There are articles containing useful tips for teenage mums and dads and true-life stories on topics such as caring for sick people, dealing with divorce and experiencing grief.
McKiernan says: "We understand how parents can be confused around issues of sex, drugs, technology etc when life is moving at such a fast pace, but we would encourage them to use the site to educate themselves so that they can understand young people better.
"The issues we are dealing with on SpunOut.ie have been highlighted to us by young people themselves, so parents and others involved with young people on a daily basis should try to harness the power of the internet to reach them."
The seeds of SpunOut.ie were sown six years ago when McKiernan was employed as a researcher by the then north western health board on a feasibility study into using the internet to support young people in their health needs.
"I went into the schools and colleges in the region over a six-month period and asked students what their health needs were and their views on the internet etc.
"I found that young people were increasingly turning to the internet as a source of help and advice, particularly because of gaps in existing services in rural Ireland and the confidentiality of the internet. It was easier for them to get information or discuss issues of mental and sexual health which are still generally seen as taboo and difficult to discuss, especially in the Irish context."
McKiernan also identified the importance of not only consulting young people, but involving them in the development of youth-friendly services, something he encourages the HSE to do when developing new services for young people.
From the beginning, young people have been involved in the design and promotion of the SpunOut.ie site, in writing articles and in making decisions about how the site is governed. As the staff grow older, McKiernan points out that the involvement of young people will ensure the site content remains relevant to that age group.
When the Irish health service went into reform, resulting in the formation of the HSE, McKiernan and a couple of his friends (all aged in their 20s) set up an independent charity and took on a range of jobs to get SpunOut.ie up and running.
He explains: "We wanted to set the site up as a national service reaching hundreds of thousands of youths, but we did not foresee the challenges. We rented an office in Ballyshannon, Donegal where we had developed good links with the health services.
"We managed to get the site up and running through begging and borrowing and within a short time, we were shortlisted for a HSE innovation award and our hit level started to increase."
From there, the site has continued to develop and it now boasts over 2,000 pages of factual youth-relevant content. A huge amount of work has gone into building relationships with healthcare and youth providers, teachers and parents.
The SpunOut office has since moved to Galway city centre and McKiernan has managed to secure three-year funding from the HSE and a private philanthropic foundation. As well as a chief executive, the website now employs a full-time operations manager, administrator, IT developer, communications and marketing officer.
A youth participation officer has recently been appointed to ensure that young people nationally have an inbuilt voice within the website, and to create partnership and dialogue between young people and politicians and the media. As a result of their involvement in SpunOut, young people from around the country have appeared on national news, have had meetings with Ministers and addressed a range of national conferences.
With the website only now coming into its own after a long period of development, McKiernan is confident Ireland will be hearing more about SpunOut in the coming years.
"We set the website up as a charity because we wanted to make clear that our motivation from the start was about creating positive societal change. We did it as a reaction to what we saw as the failings of the traditional ways around us at the time. We're not going to get rich doing this work, but it's very rewarding at the end of the day, it's ultimately positive work," he says.
The main issue for young people in Ireland today, according to McKiernan, is the emerging mental health crisis and the drastic lack of supports and services out there.
"We are in touch with young people who are receiving some psychiatric or mental health care, but on the whole, the services are not available or youth friendly. There is also huge frustration within youth culture. Young people feel they have no voice and are often told what they should think . . . if this problem isn't tackled, we will see spiralling issues around antisocial behaviour, drug abuse and crime," he warns.
See www.SpunOut.ie for more details
