IRFU Youth Council Publish Club Resource Booklet
The IRFU Youth Council have published a Club Resource Booklet with a series of findings and recommendations to improve the rugby experience for young people in rugby.
Since their formation in 2017, the council have focused on dropout and retention in youth rugby with a view to identifying reasons and finding solutions to address the issue.
A series of peer-to-peer consultations were conducted with young people in rugby across the four provinces, culminating in the publication of the Club Resource Booklet.
In her foreword to the booklet, Meadhbh Lewis, Chairperson IRFU Youth Council said:
“We want this booklet to show clubs how important it is to reach out to their young members and connect with them. Our long-term focus is to train club CWO’s to deliver these consultations with their players to allow for a constant improvement of the experience delivered to players. Clubs who do so, will empower our sport to evolve with the changing needs of our society and our young people.
“As part of our short-term focus, the Youth Council have turned their attention to developing a number of the areas mentioned through an IRFU Youth Volunteering award in which players will be asked to complete a number of different modules and practical hours across a number of different topics.”
“The Youth Council have been trained based on guidelines from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and are always contactable for clubs who would like more guidance on consulting with their youth players – email here.
I would sincerely like to thank each of the club, school and university teams that facilitated these club consultations, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience to meet club members and carry out these consultations with players.”
The booklet is available to read and download here and at https://www.irishrugby.ie/playing-the-game/spirit-of-rugby/youth-council/