Participants Wanted for RTÉ Series ‘Raised by the Village’
ÁINE O'Neill, Producer of Waka TV from Old Bawn, Tallaght, is teaming up with RTÉ in search of boys and girls aged 13-16 from urban or inner city areas in Ireland to partake in a new TV series entitled Raised by the Village.
The series will bring a small group of teenagers to live with a family in an isolated, rural village in Ireland for two weeks. According to O'Neill, they will be expected to live by the individual family's routine and contribute to the small community.
The participants desired range from teens who present themselves as a handful including having had a brush up with the law, those with gaming and social media addictions or simply teenagers who want a break from living under their parents roof.
Each child will have access to mentors and psychologists as part of the process and members of production are Garda vetted.
O’Neill claims that the inspiration behind creating a series like this was to reclaim a sense of community which has become “a thing of the past”. The social void that has developed in generations of children over time is something they hope to eliminate through a social experiment like Raised by the Village.
The hope is to teach teenagers that by giving something, they will get something back. As O’Neill describes, even though participants will have to mould themselves into rural community life, they can also share with their rural families’ knowledge of the things they enjoy such as using Skype or Twitter.
O’Neill emphasises strongly that the series “is in no way setting out to exploit the participants or portray them in any untruthful way”. The aim is to rather give young people the tools that will allow them to step into the shoes of others which can often be “the change people need to see a different path in life”.
The title of the show stems from the old saying that “it takes a village to raise a child” which is the intended message of the process. The programme will air on the autumn schedule and if the series is successful, it is something that they would consider continuing with in the future.
If interested in participating or want to find out more, please contact casting producer, Áine O’Neill at info@wakatv.ie or call 01-6343733.
