Over the summer of 2012 Exchange House Youth Service made four trips to Carlingford Adventure Centre for outdoor pursuits and fitness programmes with groups of young boys from four different sites from in the Greater Dublin area.

They young people took part in activities such as kayaking, watersports and hill walking. The days were filled with vigorous fun and exciting activities.

After registering and safety talks the young people collected their kayaking boats and headed out into Carlingford Bay. After completing some obstacles and manoeuvres they made their way to the man-made island to complete some fun activities.

The four days were very enjoyable for the young people and the days were filled with new experiences for them. The groups were mixed of boys from different sites so all made new friends.

Over the course of the summer programmes we also had three separate weekends of camping trips to the Curragh in County Kildare with three different groups of young people from Ballymun, Ballyfermot and Clondalkin. For some of the young people it was their first trip away from home without their families; in some cases this proved to be a challenge, but resulted in great success. The trips were a great success with visits to the Rock of Dona, Maze Castle in County Laois, and the Hell Fire Club, with walks in Massey’s Wood, in the Dublin Mountains. 

Exchange House’s Summer Programmes were very successful and very enjoyable with very positive feed back from the young people. They are now looking forward to some wintersports we have planned for the end of the year.

Our summer programmes were run over eight weeks. Up to 200 young people from the greater Dublin area were included in our summer programmes. This is a way for us to engage young Travellers in the school system and to promote high attendance in the formal education system.

Ballymun Youth Service Summer Projects

Labre Park Youth Service Summer Projects

St. Oliver's Park Youth Service Summer Projects