WYD mainly runs creative workshops on a weekly basis in such areas as drama, dance, film and creative writing.

They tend to run alongside school terms. Therefore our year also starts in September and finishes in June. We work three terms: Sept. to Christmas / Jan. to Easter / Easter to June.

Each area caters for different age groups. In Drama there are three age groups and they start at 9 years of age and the upper limit is 19 years. In Dance they start at 4 years and have a number of sub-groups up to 19 years. (Dance also has a non-performance adult group). In film they tend to start at 13 years and they try to group trainees in similar age groups. They have also run a training group for young adults (people in their early 20s). In creative writing they cater to young people 13-17 years.

Drama courses cost 15 euro for 8-10 weeks of classes. Dance, creative writing and video courses are more expensive and at present cost about 35 euro for 8-10 weeks. The variation is due to the lack of subsidy, and it's an aberration that we are trying to rectify.

Yes we have productions / sharings / readings for all the various areas. Typically in drama we would have 2 - 3 major productions a year, with a number of other events, e.g. works in progress / sharings within the workshop spaces. In general we try to give young people an opportunity of performing and try to avoid audition-type entrance requirements. This example from drama equally could be applied to dance and film. With creative writing we also encourage the idea of a reading at the end of a series of classes.

After 17 years we have grown to become more of a youth arts resource organisation catering for the various art forms listed above. We also cater for the wider community including youthworkers, special youth projects, young people with learning difficulties, etc. We also deliberately place drama workshops within the community and thereby encourage young people who wouldn't have the opportunity of involvement otherwise. While relying on volunteers for a lot of activities, we also endeavour to pay professional arts workers and believe that this is necessary for the development of youth arts in Ireland.

We have 3 fulltime positions (Artistic Director, Senior Film Trainer and Administrator) and two part time positions (Office Manager and Dance Development worker). We also have a number of people employed through two FAS programmes, including Administration, Dance and Film Workers. We also employ a number of freelance Drama Tutors to run workshops. We also employ a number of arts professionals for productions including Directors, Stage Managers, Production Managers, Lighting Designers, etc.

The main funders are: The Arts Council, The Dept. of Education - through the local Waterford Youth Committee. We also are funded from Waterford City Council and the Young People Facilities and Services Fund. We are also indirectly funded through the various FAS employment projects. In more recent times we have tried to generate partnerships with various agencies and organisations for particular initiatives. We also seek private sponsorship from various companies, again for particular projects, e.g. Bausch and Lomb Irland Ltd for 'The Land of Stuff' (2000) and The Book Centre for 'The Exam' (2001).