A new Group has been formed at St. Michael's House to develop leadership and advocacy skills amongst service users. Eddie Hyland, Joe Carolan, Mary Timbs, Joey Cunningham and Tara Leech attended a course at Dublin City University, which amongst other things provided them with training in the areas of communication, teamwork, presentation skills and concepts of inclusiveness.

Since their graduation in May, they have made presentations to St. Michael's House Management Teams and Rights Committees, Parents' Councils, students from Blanchardstown Institute of Technology and service users in various centres, including Templeogue and Omni. They also attended further training in Trinity College Dublin and visited a "Service User Parliament" in Monaghan.

The work that the group are undertaking is leading the way for other service users and is very helpful for our development of Service User Councils.