Youth Voice at the Heart of it All
As a youth circus school, we keep our young participants at the front and centre of everything we do.
Youth Voice
Whether circus is a casual hobby or a burgeoning passion, when young people take part in Galway Community Circus, their experience is fully theirs. As a youth circus school, we keep our youth participants at the front and centre of everything we do.
Our goal is to build a circus that looks like our members both now and in the future. Youth voice is key in the design of all our workshops and projects and we use various methods to collect feedback and ideas from our members.
Rather than designing lessons and projects without input from youth participants, we strive to be an organisation where every project is something our members want to actively and enthusiastically take part in. Wherever possible, youth participants are included in decision-making and given projects and programmes to shape, design and deliver.
Galway Community Circus tutor and artist Caoimhe is part of Caravan W.A.Y. (What About Youth), a group of 10 young representatives from member organisations of the Caravan Circus Network, who are the pioneers and voices of the young communities from across the network. Caoimhe’s work as part of this group led Galway Community Circus to host three events in 2023 that focused on youth voice and the needs and wants of our members.
Caoimhe first hosted a 'Youth Voice Box' event, where our members were invited to share their thoughts, hopes and dreams for their circus education at Galway Community Circus. Then in February 2023, we hosted a youth-led junior volunteer training taught by Caoimhe for some of our members who were interested in learning how to teach a class. 15 young people attended and through peer-to-peer learning they worked together to plan a free circus taster workshop and learned the basics of how to teach circus skills safely.
Our 15 amazing junior volunteers then led a group of 30 young people through a two-hour workshop and taught participants basic circus skills. They led a safe, inclusive and fun workshop and we were delighted to see the next generation of circus tutors so excited to share their love of the art form with others.
The youth-led volunteer training and circus taster workshop were the result of a collaboration between Caoimhe and our volunteer youth worker Jillian, who worked hard to bring these events to life. These events were made possible thanks to the National Youth Council of Ireland, Arts Council Ireland and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
If in ‘the outside world’ of school, work, and day-to-day life, young people don’t always feel like their voices are heard, the circus is somewhere they can participate fully. We encourage all our members to get involved and shape our Circus into a place that they wish it to be.
Find Your Balance
Find Your Balance was a youth mental health campaign in partnership with Mental Health Ireland and Jigsaw Galway that focused on using funambulism as a tool for wellbeing.
During the LifeLine highwire spectacle in 2022, we spoke with several of the young people involved in the project about their thoughts on mental health and finding ways to cope. The campaign focused on youth voice, letting young people offer others advice on how to deal with mental health and wellbeing.
You can watch the four videos from the campaign below.