The next Young People’s forum will be held at the MACS office in Belfast on Sunday 5th of June 11am-4pm

The agenda is service evaluations, polices and procedures and there will be a Bush Craft activity outdoors (destination to be confirmed).   Food and refreshments will be provided.

All young people are welcome!! Please contact your support worker to arrange a lift.

We have recently got the great news that MACS has got through to the 1^st round of the BIG lottery application process. So special thanks to all young people from the young peoples forum who were involved in putting together the application for the 1^st stage of the application process.  A funding sub group made up of staff and young people will be pulled together in Febuary to commence work and the 2^nd part of the application process.

The young people’s vision day will be held on Friday 15th of April from 10am-2pm.

All young people are invited to attend to voice their opinions on the service they receive at MACS.

Contact your project worker if you are interested in attending!

The next Young People’s forum will be held at the MACS office in Downpatrick on Sunday 23rd of January 11am-3pm

The agenda is organisational updates, the participation strategy, MACS logo and promotional material and there will be a drama workshop.   Food and refreshments will be provided.

All young people are welcome!! Please contact your support worker to arrange a lift.

There is another Young People’s Forum planned for Sunday 13th of March  11am-3pm.

MACS Mentoring project was shortlisted for a Mentoring Project Recognition award at the Mentoring Award’s ceremony which was held at the Ulster Hall on the 17th of November 2010.  This award was awarded to VOYPIC,  we would just like to congratulate VOYPIC on their success and hopefully we will win next year!!

One of our Volunteer Mentors won an award for a Mentor Recognition and is through to the UK Recognition Award on the 15th of December 2010 in London!

We would just like to say huge congratulations and good luck in London for the next set of awards!

We held our 20th AGM on 22^nd October at Crescent Arts Centre.  The event was a huge success in terms of both staff and young people working together to tell their stories and mark the achievements of the last year.  Staff went over and above the call of duty by making sandwiches and gorgeous buns and pastries to feed attendees.

The young people who presented their stories were truly amazing both in how they presented themselves and in the amount of honesty they shared with the audience.

The event was compered by one of our young people Ciaran Carville, who was super cool, at ease and very funny (has he a future in the media!)  We started off with MACS promotional DVD (made by young people) which was ably introduced by one of our project workers Joanne, who set the tone of the AGM as relaxed and informal.  Sara Lynn (young person) then gave a brilliant rendition of her song “Somewhere” which she collaborated with DJ Mog.  This was then followed by Ricky recounting his story whilst in the housing service, it was very heartfelt but was also sprinkled with his quirky sense of humour.  Next came a short film from Mentoring highlighting  Kieran (young person)and Andres (mentor) time together.  Colm (young person) and Phil (mentor) then talked about their experience of mentoring the highlight of which was a trip to England to see Colm’s team Man-united.  Colm came across as a total professional in relation to standing up in front of a large crowd and he could teach staff a thing or two about  public speaking.   Michaela (young person) spoke about her experience of floating support, she of course is an old hand at speaking at public events on behalf of MACS and her finesse shone through.    Dawn (young person) delivered a very witty and charming poem of her BBC children in need experience in London and  Sara Lynn talked about her therapeutic experience of working with horses.   The event ended with Paddy Cordell outlining his experience of applying for a Board of Director position as a young person, as usual Paddy was more than eloquent in delivering his speech.

Guest speakers were Chris Lyttle  MLA Alliance party and Martin Morgan (AP) Belfast Trust, both gave inspiring speeches and lauded MACS for its energy, commitment, respect, imagination and encouraging the participation of young people in MACS.

There was a great atmosphere and energy to the day and this was made all the more pertinent by the contributions of our young people, those young people who attended to lend their support and by external stakeholders who attended the event.

Many  thanks to all those who played their part on the day, we could not have done it without you!

The MACS staff health and well being day out was held on Friday the 8th of October at Tullymore Forest Park.  All staff participated in a (very long!) walk through Tullymore Forest and the day ended with a BBQ.

MACS would like to give a big thank you to Finnebrogue for all the delicious sausages they donated to our staff day out!! Everyone was truly well feed!!

Finnebrogue sausages are available from Tesco’s

We had another forum for young people on 3rd October. It was a great success. We’d like to thank all the young people and staff who gave up some time to be there!

We would like to extend huge thanks to Angela Lynn and Stephen Dornan who have served on the BOD for 20 and 15 years respectively.  Angela actually interviewed the first project worker for MACS (Mary) who is now our CEO!  Angela was also instrumental in setting up the charity.

Both Angela and Stephen have been truly brilliant directors and have supported MACS with great wisdom, knowledge and skills over the years.  They will be sadly missed, but they definitely deserve  their get out of gaol pass!

Best wishes for your new found freedom!

The group planner is currently being reviewed,  therefore all Belfast groups are cancelled until further notice