Drive to politically engage youths

Young people deserve to have their voices heard and should be encouraged to get involved in politics.

That is according to Future Voices Ireland, a group supporting youths in disadvantaged communities.

It has launched an initiative called Youth: Elect which will mentor 30 potential election candidates under the age of 30.

The programme will teach participants about communication, campaigning, and community involvement — giving them the skills to run a national campaign.

Sam Blanckensee from Wicklow is taking part in the project, and hopes to be the first transgender election candidate in Ireland.

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The 21-year-old began the transformation from female to male three years ago and thinks there is a lack of political representation for transgender people.

“My family has never been involved in politics. I was always the one who was interested. I was always the one who, even at 16 when candidates came around to the door, my parents would put me out there talking to them because they knew I was the one that could ask them the right questions,” he said on RTÉ radio.

We are thrilled to support @FutureVoicesIre #YouthElect programme designed to give young people a voice in politics. pic.twitter.com/EII4CljZPk

— The Centre Party of Ireland (@CentrePartyIre) April 9, 2015

“I currently represent one of the most marginalised communities in Ireland because most people don’t even know what ‘trans’ is.”

Sarah Jane Hennelly, 26, from Limerick is also taking part and said young people “have a lot to offer”. She stood as an independent candidate in the last local elections for Limerick City East and is hoping to run for the general election next year.

“I suppose I was always kind of on my own when I did start talking about politics among my friends but in 2014 I ran in the local elections and the biggest thing that I got out of that was engaging people that had never been engaged before in the political process,” she said.

Future Voices executive director Mairead Healy said: “We have to really contradict the notion that only people with certain accents and certain backgrounds can get involved in politics, politics is for everyone.

“A lot of the time people dismiss young people but the reality is these young people are very socially engaged.”

Always impressive @MissyMairead explains value of #youthelect &
need to give a voice to those who keep head down pic.twitter.com/a4hiGZGMUK

— Katie Dawson (@katiedawson23) April 9, 2015

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