The Rainbows Site

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Rainbows Ireland is the national umbrella organisation which provides structure, training, programmes, support and guidelines to the local Rainbows groups which are engaged in delivering the Rainbows programmes to the participants.

At a local level, Rainbows operates in a Site - that is, a location where children and young people can gather, that has registered with the National Organisation to run the programmes. A site could be a school, parish, youth club, community centre, pastoral centre or other social agency. If those responsible for that place, e.g. Board of Management and Teachers, Youth Leader, Parish Priest or Minister, Centre Director / Management are interested in becoming a site, a Rainbows Registered Director will come and talk to the staff about the organisation and its programmes.

After deciding to become a site, Adult Facilitators are recruited and attend a training programme. On completion of the training programme, information and invitations are sent to anyone wishing to take part in the twelve week programme. When there are sufficient participants interested the programme is run.

All sites have a Site Administrator, which is the person who acts on behalf of the Management Body of that site. For example, it could be the School Principal (acting on behalf of the School Board) or a parish Priest or Director of a Centre. This Administrator takes responsibility for overseeing the operation of Rainbows at that site, ensuring that the programme operates within the relevant local policies and procedures and adheres to National Rainbows policies. These responsibilities cover areas such as:  

  •  Recruitment and overseeing of Volunteers at the site
  •  Child Protection Policy at the site
  •  Insurance and Finances
  •  Health and Safety

While the Site Administrator carries overall responsibility for the running of the site, the day to day business of organising the delivery of the programmes is handled by the Site Coordinator. The Coordinator is a member of the team of trained Volunteer Facilitators who takes on the extra responsibility of handling the specific organisational details of running the programmes at the site. They oversee the Facilitators and liaise closely with the Site Administrator and the local Rainbows Registered Director.