Today on World Children’s Day, the Irish Youth Foundation will put a spotlight on Ireland’s biggest ever crisis for the country’s most vulnerable children and young people with a social media campaign that will see personalities from the worlds of sport, music, TV and literature take action by sharing their childhood photos online.

The national campaign is a call-to-action to the Irish public to stand behind and support ‘Generation Pandemic’- Ireland’s hidden children as the situation reaches breaking point; 100,000 children going to bed hungry every night, one in five living in poverty and 60% of under-24s now unemployed. Many are harder to reach and struggling to fend off isolation, hunger, mental ill-health issues and the danger of permanently falling through the cracks.

New results this week from the fourth tracker survey carried out by The Irish Youth Foundation in partnership with AmЗrach Research, echoes concerns from those working closest with young people that issues with mental health and isolation are spiralling out of control. In a snapshot survey taken on November, Friday 13, 91% are missing friends, 50% of young people are missing youth workers and mentors, 72% are missing sporting activities, 81% are missing family, 61% of children are citing isolation as their biggest issue (up 22% since July), and 58% are having difficulty maintaining structure and routine.

Lucy Masterson, CEO of the Irish Youth Foundation, says: “The pandemic has had a devasting impact on the lives of our most vulnerable children and young people. Their critical supports and lifelines have been taken away - from the basics of a safe, warm place to go after school for a hot meal, Wi-Fi for home learning, right up to access to mental health supports and activities that keep them from becoming invisible. Years of transformative work by local youth projects, charities and organisations across the country have been wiped out.

“Despite the overwhelming demand for additional supports, fundraising opportunities have virtually disappeared, and government funding alone, cannot meet the need. This week, though we were thrilled to release €500,000 from the Generation Pandemic fund to support these critical charities and organisations, we find ourselves in a terrible situation where we can only meet 6.6 % of a staggering €7.5million in application requests. This is why we are appealing to the public for help. Childhood can’t wait. We must act now”.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Irish Youth Foundation has been monitoring the burning issues facing Generation Pandemic. This has been tracked through ongoing research with AmЗrach, and groundlevel feedback from a national panel of over one thousand youth workers and project leaders who workclosely with the children in after school clubs, sporting clubs and organisations. Results prompted the social media campaign and has already seen over thirty celebrities (and rising) getting behind #GenerationPandemic, including the president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, Bressie, Padraig Harrington, Roddy Doyle and Kellie Harrington. Many more will be revealed on World Children’s Day as they mark their support. The public will be invited to post their childhood photos on social media and donate an hour of their pay.

The Irish Youth Foundation’s target is to reach 20,000 children. For more information, visit: www.iyf.ie