'I feel accepted': Youthreach provides opportunities outside mainstream education

Teenagers who left school during the pandemic and never returned are finding alternative forms of education, friendship, and acceptance in a Cork-based Youthreach centre, writes Liz Dunphy

Teacher Laura Kinsella speaking with Sean O'Mahony and Jessica O'Leary in the Youthreach Centre in Mahon. Picture: Howard Crowdy

In just seven weeks, Jessica O’Leary, a bright, eloquent and beautiful 16-year-old who had dropped out of mainstream school with social anxiety, was cracking jokes in class.

She said that after starting school in Youthreach in Mahon, her crippling social anxiety essentially disappeared, and she looked forward to going to school every day.