Open-Up Website
Access the website here: https://open-up.ie/
The aim of this website is to provide a space for children, youth and families to connect and engage with local services and supports in one place. The young people in Laois & Offaly told CYPSC they weren't sure how to access local services and they wanted one space where all the services were listed.
Therefore, CYPSC worked with Youth Work Ireland Laois to secure funding from Healthy Ireland to develop this website. An advisory panel consisting of young people in Laois & Offaly was formed to assist with the design and to ensure the website was youth-informed.
The workings of the website are overseen by the Active and Healthy CYPSC subgroup who are drawn from a wide range of services and backgrounds involved in supporting children and families at different ages and stages. Members include Laois Offaly ETB, Tusla, HSE, CAMHS/YAMHS, Primary Care Psychology, Gardai, Foroige, Youth Work Ireland Laois and Laois Partnership.
Disability Directory
Access the directory here: https://open-up.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Disability-Directory-18.12.24.pdf
The Laois Offaly CYPSC Learning and Development Subgroup identified an information gap in supports for disabilities in Laois and Offaly for a long time.
As supporting disabilities is a key priority for the Laois/Offaly CYPSC committee, it is hoped that this document will go some way to meet that gap in information and empower you as the reader to be supported as you navigate the stages of life in supporting a child or young person with a disability.
Our subgroup is made up of Parents and Service providers including Offaly County Childcare Committee, Offaly Library Service, Laois Library Service, Laois and Offaly Sports Partnerships, Laois Partnership, Inclusion Ireland, Laois Offaly families for autism, IPPN. The prepartation of this document was also guided by Parents who have experience in navigating the disability sector.
This document was supported by Inclusion Ireland.
Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) Programme
The NVR programme is for parents or carers who are experiencing child to parent violence, intimidation, emotional abuse or controlling behaviour. NVR is an evidence-based, non-blaming and relatively short-term intervention model that empowers parents and people working with them to take positive action to end the abusive and/or violent behaviour of a child. NVR helps to empower parents/carers to take positive action to end the violent and controlling behaviour experienced by learning new ways to deal with certain patterns of behaviour and repair the damaged relationship between the parent and the child. Participants on the programme learn skills to assertively and non-violently resist and de-escalate controlling and aggressive behaviours being displayed by a child in their care.
This programme can be completed on a 1 to 1 basis, in a group setting, virtually (by phone or online platform) or face to face. The programme generally runs for approx. 10 weeks for 1 to 2 hours per week (time varies depending on delivery method) at no cost to families.
The programme focuses on:
- Resisting and de-escalating the behaviour
- Increasing positive parental presence
- Developing a support network Re-building the parent - child relationship
To find out more about the NVR programme for Parents in your local area please contact:
Laois Offaly CFSN (Child & Family Support Network ) Co-Ordinator,
Child and Family Agency, Primary Care Centre, Church Avenue, Tullamore, Co. Offaly. Phone: 057 93 19280
The CFSN (Child & Family Support Network ) Co-Ordinator will be able to direct You to a local service for support.
Life Matters Podcast
Here is a link to our Autumn 2021 Podcast Series called Life Matters.
Access here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/laois-offaly-cypsc/episodes/Episode-1---Life-on-the-Spectrum-e1cpf3d
The initial six part series about "life on the spectrum" focuses on the issues and challenges experienced by different people. All the content was generated locally with our local Young people. This was set up by the Laois Offaly CYPSC ‘Learning and Development’ subgroup in response to a need for greater community Autism supports in Laois and Offaly.
Episodes to-date include:
- Life on the spectrum - Katie & Aoife Dunne in conversation with Anne Marie Kelly
- Assessment and Diagnostic Process with Dr. Penny Rogers
- Getting your child school ready with Mr. Shaun Greville
- Theory of mind & Context blindness in ASD with Dr Peter Vermeulen
- Parents experience and commmunity services available in Laois & Offaly - Local Parents , Laois & Offaly Library Staff
- Food aversion & ARFID (Avoidant, Restrictive, Food Intake Disorder) - Dr. Gillian Harris in conversation with Adam Harris
If you are a Young person, Parent, Family member or interact with people with Autism, please listen to these discussions on a range of Autism related topics. Whatever stage you are at, it is hoped that these signposting episodes help support you.
Healthy Relationships Programme
This project sets out to reduce the stigma linked to accessing services, provide clear signposting and referral pathways to services while empowering young people to make more informed decisions when it comes to relationships through a series of workshops.
Alongside the workshops a Healthy relationships forum was delivered to brief adults who work with the young people about the workshop content and empower them to provide clearer signposting/ responses when dealing with young people in their own services.
At the end of the five workshops participants will understand what consent is and how to negotiate it, be informed about the law related to sexual consent, be aware of the different forms of sexual violence, have reference points for what healthy and unhealthy relationships look like, be aware of the services provided by Rape Crisis Centres and Domestic Violence services and how to access them, be aware of the services provided by the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit, Sexual health Clinic and how to access it, and be aware of the supportive role Tusla play in responding to a young person where relationship encounters have taken place.
This programme provides real content to students in real person time. It has a holistic approach providing wraparound supports to the young people and families in the Laois/Offaly area. There are eight services equally invested in the programme which is unique.
The video below depicts the Healthy Relatonships Forum.
Download the CYPSC Covid 19 useful links and resources for Child, Youth & Family sector April 2020 HERE
This is a summary of some National websites and good resources specific to the Coronavirus situation, that are available online for the child, youth & family sector at this time.
In the pdf just click on the logo of the service to link to the Coronavirus resource/ up to date information for each service etc.
This will bring you to live webpages which means that you can keep using this pdf to link to each service for their most recent updates.
Local Authority COVID 19 Community response helpline numbers for Ireland
Exodia Research
To find another CYPSC click here.