The Sligo Leitrim Directory website provides official listings of services for children, young people and families in Sligo and Leitrim. This includes information on health, mental health, education, disability, youth, childcare and other services.
The website’s development was supported by statutory and voluntary agencies in the region and it is operated and maintained by North Connaught Youth and Community Service.
The idea for the website came about through the ongoing work the Youth Mental Health Initiative, which was established in 2011 to foster the positive mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 12-25 years in Sligo and Leitrim. The Youth Mental Health Initiative involves a partnership between a wide range of statutory and voluntary agencies, communities and young people in order to achieve this aim.
Through the work of this group, it became apparent that there was a lack of one central point of information on services for children, young people and families. This is despite the good work that has already taken place in collating information by a number of groups and initiatives. It was recognised that such a central point of information needed to be easily accessible and up-to-date, with information for service providers, parents and young people alike.
At the same time, the Coordinator of the Sligo Leitrim Children and Young People’s Services Committee (CYPSC) was asked to create a similar resource. CYPSCs are a key structure identified by Government to plan and co-ordinate services for children and young people in every county in Ireland.
The overall purpose is to improve outcomes for children and young people through local and national interagency working. CYPSC are county-level committees that bring together the main statutory, community and voluntary providers of services to children and young people.
They provide a forum for joint planning and co-ordination of activity to ensure that children, young people and their families receive improved and accessible services. As such, it was agreed to work together on this work and to develop the website as a joint project. A special group was convened to carry out the work in compiling the website, comprising the following agencies (in alphabetical order):
To provide one central point of information on services for children, young people and families in Sligo and Leitrim, usable in both an online and printable format, which is user-friendly, strategically positioned, well known and regularly updated.
The target audience for this website is:
The website hosts information on services relating to the following age groups:
The development of this website was jointly funded by a collaboration of agencies who are members of the Sligo Leitrim Children and Young People’s Services Committee (CYPSC) in Sligo / Leitrim, as follows (in alphabetical order):
Working in collaboration with a range of statutory and voluntary sector organisations through the Youth Mental Health Initiative, and also the Children and Young People’s Services Committee (CYPSC) in Sligo and Leitrim, North Connaught Youth and Community Service (NCYCS) was designated as the lead agency in relation to the development of this website.
NCYCS is a regional youth service covering Sligo, Leitrim and Mayo. The primary role of NCYCS is to address the developmental needs of young people both in and out of the formal school setting. In the context of the education process, NCYCS aims to empower young people to make informed and responsible decisions about all aspects of their lives.
Through its outreach services to schools and the wider community, NCYCS enables young people to avail of opportunities to develop their skills and abilities, to solve problems and to actively participate in society at local, national and international level. NCYCS provides the following services for 5-25 year olds on an ongoing basis:
Services must:
Please note that this is not a bulletin board for events; it is a directory of agencies that provide an ongoing service to children, young people and families.
Final decisions on website content, including whether or not an individual service is listed, and on the content of listings, rests with the administrators of the website.