Ian is 24 years old and from Gorey Co. Wexford. While looking for work in the charity and NGO sector, Ian came across an advertisement for an internship with Inspire Ireland. After reading about Inspire and the Reachout programme he was really enthusiastic about the position.

If Ian looks familiar, it may be because you met him at any one of a number of our community events over the past six months. Ian’s internship role was in community engangement and he brought Inspire’s campaign Note to Self to college campuses across Ireland, to Comhairle na nÓg and Dáil na nÓg and held information stands at different conferences and seminars.

Aware of mental health

On his internship with Inspire, Ian says “It’s a great opportunity…[Inspire] are a still a young organisation and so much is changing so your ideas and passion can really feed into the shape of where Inspire and ReachOut.com goes in the future.”

“I’ve increased my own knowledge from anxiety to depression to suicide… The gravity of issues and…especially the links to young people are something that I’ll always consider on a deeper level than I did before I came in here and I’ll be more aware of my own mental health from now on too.”

“I’d stay on for my extra month, only I have to start planning my trip. I want to stay involved as much as possible which shows how much I have enjoyed it.”

Read Ian’s story in full in .pdf format.