Politics In Action

We are delighted to welcome our new Executive Director Paul Smyth, who comes to us with a wealth of experience and a strong reputation for ground breaking youth work. I am thrilled to have taken up the post of Executive Director with Politics in Action – and I want to start by congratulating my predecessor Patricia O’Lynn on her election to the Northern Ireland Assembly. We live in a turbulent time for politics around the world, nationally and locally – and this makes the work of supporting young people’s role as active citizens more challenging and even more important. We are emerging from a global pandemic which has put unprecedented restrictions on the lives and freedoms of young people, and which has impacted their learning, their social lives, their relationships and for some their mental health. Politics in Action responded proactively to these challenges by moving workshops online and ensuring continuity. I am optimisticwe can return to largely face-to-face delivery of our programmes with young people in schools and other settings, and can find new ways of engaging with more young people and in particular those who are not normally invited into conversations about politics and citizenship. Much of what we already do is in collaboration with schools and with other youth organisations. I see so much potential for additional collaborations that allow our little charity to punch above its weight. One of the many attractions of the role is the excellent Board of Trustees who provide strong governance, leadership and vision for Politics in Action. They bring significant social and political capital to the charity and use it in the interests of young people and our shared future. I would love to hear your ideas about how Politics in Action should direct our energies over the coming months and years. Feel free to drop me a line and I am always up for a coffee and a creative chat!