What many would regard as a natural collaboration will take its first tentative steps this morning near the shores of Lough Rinn, Co Leitrim, with the coming together of Gaisce and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Gaisce, the President's Award for young people, was established in 1985. It includes among its objectives: helping young people overcome the problems of disadvantage and social exclusion; working with young people who suffer from learning and physical disabilities; devising ways to address the problems of isolation suffered by young people in rural areas; and developing ways of working with such agencies as community organisations, trade unions and the Defence Forces: in short, bringing young people together to help them help themselves.
Not unlike a supervised trade-union movement for young people, some might say.
Until now the actual trade-union movement has had little to do with nurturing such communal sentiments in the youth population. A formal link, however, will be made today by Mr Des Geraghty, chairman of the state's largest trade union, SIPTU, at the Mohill Resource Centre in Mohill, Co Leitrim.
Supported by the Sligo Trades Council, the centre is one of three in a three-year pilot project informally linking Gaisce and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. It also operates in Clonmany, Co Donegal, and Ballymote, Co Sligo, and is supported by money from the Monaghan-based Peace and Reconciliation fund.
"The point of the Gaisce award," explains Mr Hugh McConville, development officer for Gaisce in the north-west, "is to engender a can-do attitude among the young people. It's a non-competitive award open to anyone between the ages of 15 and 25.
"But they set challenges for themselves. They overcome the obstacles themselves. Really all we are is the facilitator. This is not a `Jim'll Fix It' organisation."
There are four elements of the programme: community work, learning or developing a personal skill; taking part in physical recreation; and organising an adventure trip.
Each participant has the support of a local leader.
Among the personal skills being learnt are sign language, guitar-playing and driving.
"The programme is about empowerment and also about demonstrating to young people that there are people in the community, other than their families, who want to help them get on," says Mr Clint Taylor, a local leader in adventure sports. "It's about showing them that if they want to they can do it, and the world is their oyster."
Of the 1,000 young people in the Mohill area, Mr McConville estimates that about 150 are taking part. What differentiates the north-west programme is that it is run from community resource centres rather than from schools. This, says Mr McConville, means the children are not dependent on their schools to participate and allows for a greater involvement of the voluntary sector, "which develops the local leaders".
It also makes possible the involvement of young people from diverse backgrounds.
"There's a lot of social division in rural Ireland," says Mr McConville. Stressing that the local schools are invaluable in providing facilities and activities to young people, he says the community-based model of operating the award offers a most effective way of reaching and bringing together young people who have widely differing degrees of isolation or special need. In short, the community approach may break down social division.
"Kids unconsciously accept people who are different or who have different needs from themselves. They accept each other and get on with it when brought together on the kind of programme Gaisce offers," says Mr Taylor.
Earning an award may take the young person anything from six months to two years, depending on the award aimed for, bronze, silver or gold. Though silver and bronze awards are made throughout the year, the gold awards are made at a national ceremony hosted by the President in Dublin every January.
"The important thing is that when they get that award they feel they have earned it. That - gaining the confidence to say `I deserve this' - is what it's all about," says Mr McConville.