Helping Hands in Hospital: An Erasmus+ Youth Participation Project

We’re the Castleknock Localise group, and we’ve just wrapped up a project we’re really proud of. It all started back in January 2024 with a simple idea during a workshop – to explore what life is like for children and young people in hospitals across Europe. We applied for Erasmus+ Youth Participation funding ourselves, and when it came through, we got to work.

Our project had many parts. We started by learning how to tell stories through a filming workshop. Then we began researching and learning about the experiences of children in hospitals, both in Ireland and across Europe. As a gesture of solidarity, we created care packages filled with gifts and messages of support for the patients, families, and staff in Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

We had planned to do direct research in the hospital, but we learned that due to ethical concerns, it wasn’t possible. Instead of giving up, we pivoted – we focused on desk research and gathered information about children’s hospital care across different countries. This, along with some of our own personal experiences, helped us build a deeper understanding of what young people face in hospital settings. We found that while every country has strengths and challenges, some seemed more patient-focused than others. But one thing was clear: being in hospital as a young person is tough, no matter where you are.

We chose to focus on comfort and solidarity. We made a short video about who we are and what we were doing, bought gifts for different age groups, put together hampers for staff, and delivered everything to Temple Street. Meeting with the hospital team was one of the most powerful moments of the whole project. Their appreciation made us feel proud and accomplished.

We also want to say this: we know children’s hospitals sometimes get negative attention in the media. But what we saw reminded us that behind the headlines, there are amazing people doing their best every day to care for young patients. That’s something worth highlighting.

To share our journey, we hosted a dissemination evening where we invited our local community—and even Minister Jack Chambers. We spoke about what we did, and showed a video of the impact. Melodie also wrote a poem about Localise and her experience. Minister Chambers spoke about how valuable youth voices are and how much it meant to have changemakers in his constituency. He told us he would continue to support young people doing grassroots work, which really meant a lot to us.

We felt heard. We felt empowered. We now feel like we have an informed opinion on young people’s experiences in hospitals, not just in Ireland but across Europe. This project opened our eyes, strengthened our teamwork, and reminded us that even small acts of kindness and learning can make a real impact.

“Localisation”