Civic Engagement Forum Minutes

2024 April - Civic Engagement Forum DRAFT minutes

Dublin City University
Civic Engagement Forum

DRAFT Minutes

Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.30pm
Tuesday 23rd April 2024, A204, Glasnevin Campus + Zoom

Attendance:
Emer Ní Bhrádaigh, Natalja Matease, Luke Quinlan, Adam Daly, Emma Monahan, Aisling McKenna, Leah Ridgway, Laurence van der Haegen, Emma O'Brien, Michael Mullooly, Siobhán Seoighe, Kathryn O'Mahony, Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray, Deiric Ó Broin, Carine Mambou, Una Mccabe, Peter Admirand, Una Redmond, Louise Hopper, Grainne Reddy, Padraig Murphy, Samantha Fahy, Hannah Goss, Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, Majella McSharry.

Apologies:
Liam MacGabhann, Ryan Carey, Roisin Blunnie, Maria Chernyakova, Catriona Murphy.

1. Welcome
Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed all Civic Engagement Forum members.

2. Minutes
The previous minutes were proposed by Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray and seconded by
Adam Daly. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

3. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.

4. President's Awards for Engagement

Civic Engagement Forum members concurred that the awards ceremony is not solely for the winners but also a celebration of all nominations, an opportunity to share information, and a valuable networking event.

During the discussion, the Civic Engagement Forum members provided the following feedback and suggestions:

Circulate nominees’ names and project details to Heads and Deans of departments and faculties. This will inform them of the nominees from their areas and allow them to share this information with colleagues, promoting awareness and interest in engagement activities. Knowing a colleague has been nominated can also boost participation in the
awards ceremony.
Promote a culture where colleagues nominate one another and recognize each other’s
engagement efforts.
Send targeted messages and promote Engagement Awards through the Committee
Society.
To better clarify our understanding of student engagement.
It is important to clearly communicate to students that this is the only award available to
them.
Make sure students know that this is the only award they can get through the nomination
process.
Update the guidelines for nominators and adjudicators to clarify our definition of staff
engagement, including examples of initiatives and projects.
To create a short Promo Video for social media (Tik Tok, Instagram , as they catch
student’s attention better than all students’ emails).

5. Reports and Updates

Liam Macgabhann, SNPCH Recovery College

The Dublin North, North East Recovery College are delighted to be awarded two new Implementation Science grants.

The first for €35,000 funded by HSE CHO8 in conjunction with the NE Drugs
Task force, in association with CORE Ireland. Developing a Trauma Informed
Community Response to Dual Diagnosis in Drogheda & North East region;
The second is funded by the Irish Prison Service €463,483 with €393,555 going to DCU and the remainder €69,928 going to our partner Recovery Academy Ireland.
Developing a Framework for Recovery Education Across the Irish Prison Service;

Louise Hopper, School of Psychology

Psychology Lifelong learning programme has just completed for this semester. We ran two programmes (both semesters) in the last academic year and the response from the local community has been great. We have a Wellbeing Summer School coming up on the 13th-14th of June.

Grainne Reddy, Age-Friendly University

12th March - International Women’s Day - Venue The Hive - Guest Speaker was Margaret Hoctor
The AFU Office had a stand at the 50+ Show March 14-16. It was a verysuccessful event.
25th March we had a Multiplier Event for the end of the COPE Project.
Games Night - 28th March - The Hive (6-8pm)
Tour of Belvedere House on April 11th by Dr. Tom Mc Cloughlin for AFU participants
15th April we have a presentation on Health Age-friendly homes talk with Eimear McCormack from Meath County Council
17th April we had a presentation from Spry Finance on Lifetime Loans
Our next Games Night is on the 7th May in the Hive from 6-8pm all welcome.
We have our TY Awards Ceremony on the 16th May for Intergenerational Solidarity and Cooperation between Generations 2024
We have an Exhibition on the 23rd May in the Hive to showcase all the work the AFU participants have done.

Deiric O’Broin, Office of Civic Engagement

DCU's involvement in the region has this quarter has related to small number of distinct areas of work, including:

The Local Economic and Community Plan for Dublin;
A skills audit for the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor Network;
EcoCore ULG project in Balbriggan;
The This City Works Initiative

The first is a statutory process and will conclude in May 2024. It is only the second time that Dublin City Council has prepared a Local Economic and Community Plan and it is a very considerable undertaking. You can view some of the recent public consultation efforts at https://consultation.dublincity.ie/culture-recreation-and-amenity/local….
The skills audit for the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor Network recently completed and will be available via the DBEC in the coming months, see https://www.dbec.info/ for more details.

DCU's Office of Civic Engagement is a member of the EcoCore Balbriggan initiative. EcoCore is a green transition in small cities along transport corridors initiative funded by the EU, see https://urbact.eu/networks/ecocore for details.

This City Works is a job-seeking and skills development partnership between Google, a number of public agencies and local community initiatives, see https://thiscityworks.com/ for further details.

Laurence Vanderhaegen, Access Service

Change Makers Mentoring programme
Our annual Change Makers ceremony celebrated all students who took part in our peer mentoring programme which brought together students from Youthreach Ballymun, Trinity Comprehensive and DCU. We are currently creating a resource so that this programme can be replicated with other under-represented groups in disadvantaged communities around DCU.
Faculty tasters
The Access service ran a series of 20 taster workshops in partnership with all faculties in February. In total, over 100 5th year students from our linked schools took part in these workshops in Glasnevin & St. Pats.
The Headstart in the Community programme ran a series of workshops for prospective mature students in DCU in the Community and Balbriggan/ Ballymun ETBs for approx. 40 students this semester.
The Empowering Communities initiative brought 20 youth & community workers together and aimed to support non-formal educators in their work with young people
in a community setting.

Natalja Matease, Office of Civic Engagement

The recipients of the 2024 President’s Awards for Engagement were announced by the Deputy President of DCU Professor Anne Sinnott on Thursday, April 11th in HG22 as follows:
- Student Award: Mark Dunne
- Staff Award: Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray and Kathryn O'Mahony, with Alexis Carey, Independent Researcher
- Student, Special Merit: Ishita Gupta
- Staff, Special Merit: DCU’s Tanzania Pre-Primary Education team:
  Fiona Giblin, Catherine Mulryan-Kyne and Bernard Pierce
We would like to congratulate the winners and we have invited them to join the Civic Engagement Forum
We would like to thank all entrants & the judging panel
A full list of nominees, winners and a photo gallery is available at: https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/dcu-presidents-awards-engagement
DCU News item: https://www.dcu.ie/commsteam/news/2024/apr/recipients-announced-dcu-presidents-awards-engagement

Una Redmond, Student Life

Delighted that one of our SU executive team won the Student Award for Engagement recently.
We continue to offer free breakfast and non perishable groceries to students through to the end of exams
Thanks to the current SU sabbaticals who have their last meeting of this group this week- they have contributed well throughout the year.

Roisin Blunnie, School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music

The School of TPM's Spring Concert took place on 3 April in All Hallows church with a full audience of family, friends, colleagues, local community;
Irish Biblical Association Conference took place at All Hallows Campus on 8-9 March;
Sounds of Dissent Research symposium took place at RSAI Merrion Sq and at St Patrick's Campus, 11-12 April.

Luke Quinlan, DCU Engaged Research

2023/2024 Webinar Series The Power of Collaboration is to finish on Thursday
25 April with a presentation from Christine O'Kelly entitled Culture on Prescription Europe - The Ripple Effect on Collaborative Projects (For more info& to register: https://t.co/C7MDOJNuy8).
recruiting speakers for 2024/2025 series will begin in May 2024 - If anyone would like to enquire please contact Luke, feel free to share with your colleagues.
The PPN Summer School will take place this year - expanding as to include all 4 of the Dublin-based PPNs (Dublin City, Fingal, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, and
South Dublin). It will take place from 27-30 May with a mixture of in-person & online capacity building workshops.
DCU Engaged Research will begin creating a program of activities for 2024/2025 - if there is any interest in working with us, please contact Luke Quinlan.

Rosie Savage, School of Inclusive Special Education

This week (15th-19th Apr) Kathryn O Mahony hosted 25 teachers from special schools all over Ireland for an induction course on enhancing educational practice for learners with severe to profound general learning disabilities.

The course has contributions from parents whose children attend local special schools in Dublin as well as Principals who have worked in this area in the Dublin region for almost 30 years. Previous attendees of the course consistently express how these sessions continue to impact their practice.

This is a short course (8 days) where teachers can attend lectures at DCU Institute of Education and their schools are provided funding from the Department of Education for a substitute teacher.

This course is currently non accredited but it acts as a gateway for teachers working with children with complex needs to attend our post graduate courses. Currently we are the only higher education provider of CPD for teachers that has a dedicated focus on learners with Severe to Profound GLD.

Aoife Brennan: The School has developed a partnership with Bank of Ireland to conduct research on inclusive workplaces. It's an €82K project. We will be launching a media release in the coming weeks.

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability

Sustainability Update

The guidance from SEAI/EPA on the Climate Action Plan 2024 was published in Apr 24 and public sector bodies now have 6 months to complete their Climate Action Roadmaps in response to the Plan. There will be further engagement across the university in the development of this roadmap.
Marchathon 2024 went well with 55 DCU teams from both staff and students – the winning DCU team was ‘The Ugly Step-Sisters’ – congrats to all who took part.
Secure Cycle parking is being installed on the All Hallows campus and improvements are being made to the cycle parking facilities on St Patricks campus as well.
The new BusConnects E1/E2 Spine is planned to go live in June 2024 at which point the other busses (4, 9, 11, 13, 155) along this route will cease. Along with the ESpine there will also be a new 19 route that will maintain the link between the GLA and AHC/SPC campuses while we await the delivery of the A route. Route 19 will run every 20 minutes throughout the day with additional short-run trips between Wadelai Park and Parnell Square at peak times. More info here: https://busconnects.ie/. 

This is also a useful site to see the changes:
https://sandbox.kevin.ie/busconnects_compare/
DCU has joined the EAUC where is are lots of sustainability related resources for all staff and students to access – see here https://www.eauc.org.uk/member_zone
There has been a series of meeting on ‘What should HEIs do about the planetary Crisis’ and the next meeting, which will take place in TU Dublin, Grangegorman Campus, on Thursday May 30th from 10:00-16:00. Focus on campaign for mandatory Education on Sustainable Development for all undergraduates on the island of Ireland - to move from ambition to action. You can sign-up here:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/what-should-heis-do-about-the-planetary-crisis-from-ambition-to-action-tickets-885422240757?aff=oddtdtcreator
The Centre for Climate and Society’s Annual Conference – Climate Justice across Generations was held in the Helix on 16 April – where the theatre was packed out to hear Mary Robinson continue to call for more action to address the climate and biodiversity emergency.
There was also a fantastic session with participants in Ireland’s Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. Well worth taking a look at the recording when they are available on the centre’s website -
https://www.dcu.ie/climate

Leeanne Hinch, CTYI

CTYI recently finished up our Spring term for Primary school students where we had ~800 primary school students on DCU campus each Saturday.
We will shortly finish up Semester 2 of Early University Entrance (EUE), which is our programme for highly able TY students who come to DCU one day a week to take first year college modules. This semester we had ~300 students participate in EUE from all across Ireland, who commuted to DCU each week.
We recently received separate grants to support highly able students from DEIS schools to attend specialised science programmes with us.
The SFI funded project Bright Minds, Brilliant Discoveries for 6th class pupils is currently ongoing, bringing ~30 DEIS students to DCU each week.
The RSC funded project Polymer Playground is just finished, and we hosted ~40 DEIS students in DCU each week.
In the coming months we will host another ~50 students on each of those projects.

Emma Monahan, DCUSU

Darkness Into Light

Emer Nibhradaigh, Fiontar agus Scoil na Gaeilge

RevitaLESE Erasmus-funded project completed end January 2024. Revitalising Longer Established Social Enterprises. Five training modules (1 to 1.5 days each)
available online and for free at: https://revitalese.eu. Topics: Assessing current situation; maximising digital resources; better social outcomes; implementing
Green agenda; better economic outcomes. All materials - slides, lesson plans etc in 4 languages. Also 18 podcasts & 17 case studies.
Link established with Kinia, social enterprise re creativity, innovation education,
via Irish language medium TechFéile held in Google Dublin HQ.
200 students from local Gaelcholáistí attended Seachtain na Gaeilge events on
AHC campus.
Bilingual Hackathon on Arranmore Island Donegal: BA Gnó & Gaeilge and
MSc students with local community leaders in February.
Una Mccabe, School of Arts Education and Movement
Lucy Hill 1) YPCE/Arts Council Studio practice development in consultation with The Ark children’s council, mentored by Sarah Marsh (the sensory toolkit).
2) Precious Yolks Early Years egg tempera workshop for Ukrainian families for VISUAL Carlow Andrea Cleary: In conjunction with Enfield Development Group,
gathered like minded people to set up EDG Arts and the inception of the ‘Social Series’. So far we have an art group, a community choir, and beginners Ukuele social
group, working in partnership with local business.

6. AOB
N/A

7. Next Meeting
Date of the next meeting: 09/10/2024

2024 February - Civic Engagement Forum minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.30pm

Tuesday 7^th February 2024, Mentoring suite, Glasnevin Campus + Zoom

Attendance:

Adam Daly, Deiric Ó Broin, Pádraig Murphy, Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray, Michael Mullooly, Luke Quinlan, Úna Redmond, Justyna Byrzykowska, Samantha Fahy, Deirdre Corby, Natalja Matease, Carine Mambou, Emma Monahan, Ryan Carey, Mary Colgan, Laura Mahoney, Christine O'Kelly, Liam MacGabhann, Cara Greene, Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, Rob Gillanders, Una Mc Cabe, Majella McSharry, Emma O'Brien, Louise Hopper.

Apologies:

Aisling McKenna, Trudy Corrigan, Rosie Savage, Peter Admirand, Roisin Blunnie, Maria Chernyakova, Catriona Murphy.

1.Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed all Civic Engagement Forum members.

2.Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Justyna Byrzykowska and seconded by Ryan Carey. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

3.Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

4.President's Awards for Engagement

Deiric Ó Broin and Natalja Matease provided an overview of President's Awards for Engagement 2024 as follows:

● Applications are now open and welcome for the forthcoming President's Awards for Engagement.

● More coherent and visual process this year.

● Please nominate and encourage your colleagues & students to nominate at https://www.dcu.ie/presidents-awards/engagement.

● There will be no extended deadline and the nomination process will be closed at 5pm on 20th February 2024.

● Winners will be announced during the awards ceremony on 11th April 2024.

● All are welcome to attend the awards ceremony on 11th April @ 2.15pm in HG22 (Refreshments/light lunch will be served in the Foyer from 1:45pm), please RSVP (https://shorturl.at/bcdmZ) if you would like to attend.

Laura Mahoney observed that the engagement awards ceremony is a great way to meet people and celebrate staff and students’ involvement in engagement activities (even if you don’t win, as your involvement is celebrated on the day).

5.Reports and Updates

Robert Gillanders

DCU ARC

ARC hosted a delegation of students who won an anticorruption contest in Ukraine. Organised meetings with AGS, DoJ, TII and academics
ARC members continues to engage with gov. on anti-corruption reform agenda/strategy, and advice EC on developments in Ireland.
ARC policy briefs on ongoing IRC funded work available in English, French and Ukrainian

Deiric Obroin

Office of Civic Engagement

In relation to the Office's Local and Regional Engagement remit we have been engaging in four processes since the last meeting of the forum:

(a) Dublin Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP) development process - the draft High Level Goals were presented to the LECP Advisory Group (including DCU representation) on Monday 29th January 2024 for review, see https://consultation.dublincity.ie/culture-recreation-and-amenity/local… for further details.
(b) Fingal Local Economic and Community Plan (2023-2028) development process - the Fingal LECP Draft Framework Report and the LECP Draft Implementation Plan which covers implementation for the first 2 years of the LECP were reviewed this month by the Fingal LECP Advisory Group (including DCU representation), see https://www.fingal.ie/council/service/fingal-local-community-developmen… for further details.
(c) Fingal Skills Strategy implementation - ongoing representation of DCU;
(d) Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor (DBEC) Skills Audit - research been undertaken in conjunction UU to undertake (1) an audit on existing skills focused research with recommendations drawn on insights relevant to DBEC and where intelligence gaps exist, and (2) make recommendation for actions to address demand & supply for labour & skills in specialised sectors along the Dublin Belfast Economic Corridor.

Ryan Carey

Widening Participation

Completed 1916 Bursary application process for DCU, DkIT, MU & TUS Athlone (735 applications)
Reinstated University of Sanctuary committee
Supporting the MELLIE Project through University of Sanctuary funding
Some of our students have founded a University of Sanctuary Society; we'll be working closely with them on future events
Two MA Refugee Integration students are volunteering with us to revamp the Sanctuary website
The ReDiscovery centre in Ballymun have provided us with some bikes for students who are refugees/IPAs. If any colleages know of students in need of one please let me know!

Trevor Boland

DLSs

We have a short 5 day event for students in DCU about technology Nd this will happen I Valentines week.
We also have a technology resource called Comapss that can go in any college VLE (Moodle, blackboard canvas, brightspace etc)

Padraig Murphy

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

- ECIU SMART-ER project ended Jan 2024. This was the flagship ECIU research project with citizen science at its centre.
- GTE on Engaged Research in its third year, just completed. All students progressed very week (12 took the module).

Natalja Matease

Office of Civic Engagement

President's Awards for Engagement 2024:

Applications are now open and welcome for the forthcoming President's Awards for Engagement.
Please nominate and encourage your collegues & students to nominate at https://www.dcu.ie/presidents-awards/engagement
There will be no extended deadline and the nomination form will be closed at 5pm on 20th February 2024
Winners will be announced during the awards ceremony on 11th April 2024
All are welcome to attend the awards ceremony on 11th April @ 2.15pm in HG22 (Refreshments/light lunch will be served in the Foyer from 1:45pm), please RSVP (https://shorturl.at/bcdmZ) if you would like to attend

Sylwia Kazmierczakmurray

School of Inclusive and Special Education

Since our last update, our colleague, Dr Laura Gormley has become a fellow with the DCU Changemaker Schools Network. Another colleague, Dr Sinead McCauley-Lambe has become a Chairperson of the BOM in St. Vincent's NS.
Dr Joe Travers is involved with the below group to further inclusive education in policy and practice:
Inclusive Education Alliance Steering Group, a network of Disabled Persons Organisations, Advocacy Groups, Academics and Education Leaders.
- Dr. Emer Nowlan CEO Educate Together
- Damien Walshe CEO Independent Living Movement Ireland
- Brian Hayes Director The National Platform of Self Advocates
- Derval McDonagh CEO Inclusion Ireland
- Dr Joanne Banks, Assistant Professor, School of Education
  Trinity College Dublin
- Dr Joe Travers Associate Professor School of Inclusive and Special Education Institute of Education Dublin City
Dr Neil Kenny is involved in the following two projects:
- Young Ambassadors Against Bullying and Cyberbullying
  In Dr Kenny's words: 'We are coming to the end of the Young Ambassadors Against Bullying and Cyberbullying Project, which I am leading on behalf of the ABC and is being completed in Collaboration with Castletroy College in Limerick. The project is funded via ERASMUS+ in collaboration with partners in Spain, Italy and Croatia.'
- Gheel Autism Services and IHREC:Dr Jane O'Kelly and Dr Neil Kenny are completing an evaluation of Gheel Autism Services IMPACT Programme funded via the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. The project is entitled Future Expectations: A Qualitative Research Study Exploring the Perceptions and Expectations of Autistic Young Adults of the IMPACT Programme.
Other projects and engagements we reported on previously are still ongoing.

Luke Quinlan

Centre for Engaged Research / Office of Civic Engagement

CER:
- CER is currently going through a transitional period; change of structure/steering committee, as it is now under the auspices of the Office of Engagement and the Research Office
- The PPN Summer School will take place this year, for the 3rd year. It will now include 3 of the 4 Dublin based PPNs (Dublin City, Fingal and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown.
- 2023/2024 Webinar Series 'The Power of Collaboration' is ongoing. This month we will showcase the work of Fiona Murphy from the SALIS department (Feb. 29th)
OCE:
- the 'Head Start in the Community: Preparing for Higher Education' 10-week bridge to education pilot program will come to an end on 14 Feb. 2024. It has been very successful. With feedback from the participants we will discuss having this as a possible permanent fixture in our calendar.

Carinelaure Mamboumetiefeng

Cad aid foundation presents the international decade for people of African descent. Theme: Empower Her, Breaking Barriers, Celebrating Diversity

The event aims to embrace diversity and empower individuals to break down barriers. It is a celebration of culture as a whole, the strength of unity and an opportunity for exhibitors to show off their expertise.

What to expect on that day: Inspiring Keynote Speakers, Panel Discussions, Engaging Workshops, Art, Exhibition and Cultural Performances, Kids activities(STEAM workshops, Painting and much more), Delicious Food and Refreshments, Networking Opportunities, Gala Night and much more.

Justyna Byrzykowska

Office of civic engagement

Dcu Volunteering website undertaking a huge update, weekly meetings with comms team
Volunteering festival to be held soon with DCUSU
Huge interests from students about volunteering due to DCU advertisement on Instagram

Samantha Fahy

Sustainability

DCU has retained Green Campus Status for all three academic campuses following An Taisce Review in late 2023 - thank you to the DCU SU, students and staff who presented and engaged with the reviewers.
In December 2023, DCU was ranked 11th in International UI Green Metrics - https://greenmetric.ui.ac.id/
In Q4 2023, SFI launched Sustainable Labs programme - https://www.sfi.ie/research-news/news/sustainable-labs/
Climate Action Leadership training to be rolled out to all Heads and Deans in Q1/2 2024
Marchathon 2024 will start next month - email will be circulated with details
DCU Website info on Commuting and Travel have been updated - https://www.dcu.ie/travel-to-dcu
DCU on Sustainability with access to all DCU Climate Action Plans and Roadmaps are also updated - https://www.dcu.ie/sustainability 
https://www.dcu.ie/sustainability/dcu-climate-action-plan-2021-2026
The 2024 National Climate Action Plan has been issued and DCU will respond with an updated DCU Climate Action Roadmap once guidance has been issued by SEAI/EPA.
There is a new Biodiversity Working Group to coordinate between staff/students wishing to utilise external DCU campus space for teaching/learning/research and the DCU Estates team to ensure to ensure a coherent and agreed approach.

Catriona Murphy

School of Nursing Psychotherapy and Community Health

Virtual Reality Dementia and Ageing Experience presentation in DCU Virtual Reality (VR) lab for Assistant Directors of Nursing, Dementia Quality Improvement groups from across Dublin Mid Leinster, Ireland East, UL, Saolta, South South West and RSCI Hospital groups 01/12/23 (C Murphy).
Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) End of Life Survey presentation- PPI and dissemination 01/01/23 (Lucy Whiston)
Engaged Research Festival presentation- PPI Ignite Network at DCU 11/12/23 (Lucy Whiston)
Invited speaker at the launch of the Work Ready Programme which is a set of 5 Modules which have been designed in a collaboration between City of Dublin ETB and Down Syndrome Ireland. Also provided advice and support to the team. The collaboration was funded by the Adult Literacy for Life, Innovation and Collaboration Fund. The new Modules at level 2 will be available for providers of education and training, to deliver to learners who aspire to learn industry specific skills, that will benefit their progression to work in areas such as hospitality, retail, and administration 11/12/23 (Deirdre Corby)
Facilitation of a workshop on ‘Love, Sexuality, Loneliness and Staying Positive’: Intimate, Personal and Sexual Relationships in the Twenty First Century" as part of the national conference for people living with HIV. (R O Neill)
Working with Positive Now across encouraging relationships and dating lives for people living with HIV on the island of Ireland Jan 27/28th (R O Neill)
St John of God Lucena Services: providing second of two vocational training workshops for occupational therapists and speech and language therapists on clinical supervision 1.2.24 (Aisling McMahon)
Gheel Autism Services: providing once-monthly consultation to guide establishment of peer supervision groups for Gheel staff (November 2023 to June 2024) (Aisling McMahon)

Emma Monahan

DCUSU

This week - S.H.A.G week - working with HSE
Elections of new team - campaigning starting 7/2/24
DCUSU Referendum - on stance of no confidence in the government
Working on voter registration/info campaign for family and care referendum

Cara Greene

ADAPT, School of Computing

ADAPT is a partner on a new EU-funded project, S+T+ARTS4WATERII - Ports in Transformation, which will leverage creative practice to co-design digital technology solutions to water-related challenges. Core to the 2-year project will be artist residencies in three Irish ports. We will be seeking researchers in relevant fields to join local expert groups to define challenges and work with the artists to adopt creative processes to enable technology design for addressing key challenges facing ports and their environs.
ADAPT’s Technology in My Life workshop materials on the ethical use of technology are now available for primary schools nationwide.
ADAPT is introducing an ambassadors programme to it AI in My Life Transition Year workshop series on AI, ethics and privacy. ADAPT members and DCU undergraduate will deliver taster workshops in schools over the next 3 months.
The national final of the All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad will be hosted in DCU on 20th March.

Liam Macgabhann

Dublin North, North East Recovery College

The Recovery College has taken over as co-facilitator of the National Community Development Mental Health Network with Community Work Ireland. This Network brings together presently 77 intersectional community groups around Ireland to lobby, inform policy and take part in community activism towards community transformation
Recovery College now partnering with North East Drugs Task Force and associated community organisations to implement a community capacity building project on Dual Diagnosis in Louth, Meath, Cavan, Monaghan
Recovery College is about to commence the implementation of an emancipatory recovery education framework into the Irish Prison Service

Louise Hopper

School of Psychology

We are in the process of planning a series of events for the 5 year anniversary of the creation of the School. These will include some events that will be open to the public. We are also in the process of developing the content for a summer school. Some of these events may also be open to the public.

Roisin Blunnie

Theology, Philosophy, and Music

January 25th, Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of The Campaign for Uyghurs spoke on: "The Silent Genocide: Uncovering the Uyghur Humanitarian Crisis" for the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue. Dr Sanaa Alimia (Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, The Aga Khan University), presents “Refugee Cities: Afghans in Pakistan,” Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 3 PM
DCU Choral Leadership Day took place on 20 January at the All Hallows Campus. The Day served as a multiplier event for the Erasmus+ IN-VOICE4MPowerment project.

Una Mccabe

School of Arts Education and Movement

Susan Marron represents DCU on the Irish Primary PE Association which promotes physical activity in education contexts.
REACT: Remote Education of the Arts through Co-Teaching
Michael Flannery: Visual arts education with primary school children and their class teacher from St. Joseph's National School in Clondalkin on a weekly basis.
Annie O’Breachain and Lucy Hill contributed design thinking to the development of children's engagement with the new Museum of Childhood which will open soon in Waterford.
Marie Louise Bowe is a member of advisory committee of Music Generation Laois, is Music Ed. Consultant with renowned harpist Aisling Ennis (ongoing advising on her concerts with national concert hall - funded by creative Ireland/arts Council) She also has partnerships with St.Finian’s National School finglas (string Programme) and St. Pat’s school, incorporating her Music Education Specialism students
Una McCabe: Story and Drama project (March 2024) with artist Dave Rudden in Corpus Christi school.

Eabhnat Nifhloinn

School of Mathematical Sciences

Our School took part in Science Week in November, as part of an SFI-funded Faculty initiative. A number of colleagues gave evening lectures open to the public on a range of their research interests.

In addition, we ran workshops for over 150 primary school children from local DEIS schools on problem-solving in mathematics. This was hugely successful, with a very positive response from teachers and pupils - with some teachers asking if they could sign up on the spot for the following year.

We would like to open up the initiative to Gaelscoileanna in our locality also, but would need to translate the resources to do so effectively and are struggling to locate funding schemes that might cover this - suggestions very welcome!

Una Redmond

Office of Student Life

Clubs and Socs had their Refresher Day last week to give students who didn't get a chance to join in the semester another opportunity to do so.
The Free Breakfast Club and the Pantry Food Initiative are going well, and there is great daily uptake.
The SU officers continue to engage with awareness campaigns; for example, this week is Sexual Health Awareness Week.

2023 November - Civic Engagement Forum minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.30pm Tuesday 21^st November 2023, FBR, INVENT, Glasnevin Campus+ Zoom

Attendance:

Christine O'Kelly, Rosie Savage, Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, Roisin Blunnie Naadiya Carrim, Louise Hopper, Marcella Bannon, Emma Clarke, Michael Mullooly, Leah Ridgway, Pádraig Murphy, Deirdre Corby, Emer Ni Bhradaigh, Catriona Murphy, Maria Chernyakova, Adam Daly, Ryan Carey, Aisling Mc Kenna, Liam MacGabhann, Una Redmond, Luke Quinlan, Deiric Ó Broin, Natalja Matease, Justyna Byrzykowska, Peter Admirand, Hannah Goss.

Apologies:

Siobhán Seoighe, Agnés Maillot, Leeanne Hinch, Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray, Una McCabe

1.Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed the Civic Engagement Forum group and thanked them for attending, followed by introductions by each member.

2.Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Luke Quinlan and seconded by Justyna Byrzykowska. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes.

3.Matters arising

A new item has been added to Agenda: Civic Engagement Strategic Plan

Reports and Updates received via the Google Form for today’s meeting were shared with all members prior to the meeting and will be added to the Minutes of today’s meeting as well.Collating of information via the Google Form will be the core element of the future meetings and will provide an opportunity for the members to ask questions in relation to Reports & Updates during the meetings.

4.Civic Engagement Strategic Plan

Deiric Ó Broin briefed Civic Engagement Forum members on university approach to Strategic Planning and provided an overview of the following Civic Engagement pillars:

DCU in the Community Offering / Community-Based Programmes
Engaged Research
Student Volunteering & Staff Volunteering
Regional Engagement

Following discussion between Civic Engagement Forum members it was proposed to review and discuss how to capture and highlight broader Civic Engagement activities at the next meeting of the Civic Engagement Forum.

5.Reports and updates

Roisin Blunnie, School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music

The School recently hosted the International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference, in collaboration with De Paul, St John's, and Niagara Universities.
Staff led workshops at the recent Post-Primary Music Teachers Assoc Conference, based on Erasmus+ project outcomes;
DCU Choral Leadership Day welcomes 100+ choral/music leaders on 20th January 2024;
Staff contributed to organisation and presentation of recent Irish Theological Association Conference in TCD, on theme of 'War and Peace', with both staff and students participating in discussions on situation in Gaza and ongoing conflict elsewhere.
Institute of Ethics staff working on assistive technologies with the National Disability Authority Ireland (NDAI)

Padraig Murphy, Faculty of HSS

ECIU: Meeting Bentley this week to look at Digital twins technology for emergency response as challenges for DCU modules; bilateral joint awards, mobility and research collaborations being identified. Agreed ECIU plan for FHSS. Engagement Governance: in process - protocols and due diligence for collaborating with CSOs/NGOs; one finalised for HEIs.

Louise Hopper, School of Psychology

I am PI on a number of projects that relate to dementia (policy, awareness, assistive technologies, and psychosocial models of care), health service use, healthy ageing including brain-health awareness and chronic illness prevention, and I am currently supervising two PhD students researching co-morbid cancer and dementia. I have incorporated PPI into my projects since before it was called PPI, including healthy older adults. I recruit PPI members through civic engagement.

I am also running a Citizen Science and a Citizen Jury project; each kicked off during Science Week.

Finally, I teach Community Psychology and I am keen to look at different ways to approach civic engagement (e.g. from a teaching, research and social perspective).

Deiric O’Broin, Office of Civic Engagement:

DCU's involvement in the region has recently related to small number of distinct areas of work, including the development of the:

(a) Local Economic and Community Plan for Dublin;

(b) Local Economic and Community Plan for Fingal;

(d) Skills Strategy for Fingal;

(e) Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor Network.

The first two are statutory processes and more details are available at https://www.dublincity.ie/residential/improving-my-community/local-economic-and-community-plan-2016-2021/about-dublin-city-local-economic-community-plan-2016-2021 and https://www.fingal.ie/news/fingals-local-economic-and-community-plan-lecp-2023-2028-consultation.

More information on the Skills Strategy for Fingal is available at https://www.fingal.ie/skills-strategy. This is a novel area of work for DCU as this is first local government skills strategy in Ireland and DCU's involvement reflects the very strong collaborative relations development with Fingal County Council over recent years.

DCU's involvement with the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor network (DBEC), see https://www.dbec.info/for more details, is in partnership with Ulster University and both universities have played a key role in the development of the network.

Catriona Murphy, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health:

Presentation on the NEX project and tour of the NEX living lab as part of the Taste of DCU hosted by DCU Age Friendly University, Sep 1st (C Murphy)
Launch of the Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) Ignite Festival 2023, Oct 2nd (L Whiston)
Communicating Together to inform Palliative and Healthcare Research Patient and Public Involvement Workshop, Oct 9th (L Whiston)
Mental Health, Spirituality and Psychotherapy, SNPCH Tattered couch public psychotherapy lecture series, Oct 19th (R O Neill)
Dementia and ageing inclusion using virtual reality tools open event for National Positive Ageing Week, hosted by the SNPCH in collaboration with DCU Age Friendly University, Oct 4th (C Murphy)
Secrets worth Sharing: How to talk about childhood sexual abuse, SNPCH Tattered couch public psychotherapy lecture series, Nov 9th (R O Neill)
Launch of the UNFPA State of the World Population Report Nov 14th (Anne Matthews) https://www.dcu.ie/science-and-health/news/2023/nov/state-world-population-report-2023-launched-dcus-school-nursing and https://tinyurl.com/UNFPA-Launch-2023
Queer and Here support group for LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers which the SNPCH DCU co-facilitates with Outhouse (R O Neill) https://queerandhere.jimdosite.com/
Gheel autism services: SNHS providing once-monthly supervision consultancy to support setting up and overseeing peer supervision groups for staff. (A McMahon)
St John of God Services: SNHS providing supervisor training for occupational therapists and speech and language therapists in Lucena services (A McMahon)
National Educational Psychology Services (NEPS): SNPCH provided Two-day supervisor training for NEPS staff. (A McMahon)
Co-facilitation of the Hearing Voices Network Dublin group (M Farrelly)
Providing support to set up community-based Alzheimer’s cafes in Spain similar to Irish model, SNPCH in collaboration with the Global Brain Institute (K Irving)
Celebrating stories through objects, a dementia focused community based creative arts program in Mayo and Dublin (K Irving)

Una Redmond, Student Life:

Usual SU events for Christmas planned- night time event.
Society engagement is also healthy Thai semester.
Noteworthy though are the initiatives that we are putting in place for cost-of-living crisis students are facing.
Free breakfast, pantry for essentials, more microwaves and free hot water.
Also investigating adapting some spaces in the U for smaller engagement opportunities like crafting, games or meeting other commuter students.
We are also promoting the participation fund to allow access students take part in Clubs and Socs activities.
Finally, we are running a survey to find out what our students lives look like. Entitled “ We are all ears”, there are already over 4,000 responses. We will use this data to inform our activities and our next strategic plan.

Deirdre Corby, PATH 4 call:

The DCU Ability Project ran for 4.5 years and finished in December 2022, we worked with young adults with disabilities, their service provider, their families, and employers, to help them in finding suitable education, training and employment. The impact of the project is continuing with two engagements within the community.

‘Work Ready’ Programme Development. The City of Dublin ETB Barry Road, Finglas and Down Syndrome Ireland are currently working on developing 5 preparations for work modules for people with a variety of abilities. The objective of each module will be to prepare students for their work role, making the transition to work easier for both the person and the employer.
St John of God Service, Kildare are also working on a project similar to the DCU Ability Project.

I am providing practical and consultative support to both these projects.

Overall, for these and other projects it is about sharing the learning from the DCU Ability Project to support groups who are in turn engaging and empowering people with intellectual disabilities.

Laurence van der Haegen, Access Outreach Officer:

A number of events held on campus for College Awareness Month (November):

Combining Sports & College in collaboration with Sports & Wellbeing: An info session for anyone interested in Sports and curious about all supports offered by Sports & Wellbeing and DCU Access.
Teaching as a Career, in collaboration with local partnerships: DCU students shared their experience with students aspiring to become teachers.
Empowering Communities: Introductory workshops for youth workers community educators on access to third-level education
Ongoing school outreach programmes: HEAR & DARE, Weekly maths drop-ins, etc.

Luke Quinlan, Centre for Engaged Research:

CER

The CER webinar series for 2023/2024 is fully organised and we have completed 2 so far; Robert Gillanders and Samantha Fahy, where combined we had over 35 attendees. Our next webinar welcomes Deiric O'Broin and Paula Dolan on 30 Nov. 2023. (Go to CER webpage for more info/ to register)
The Engaged Research Festival will take place on 11 December 2023. Registration is free and open to all. This event will take place in the Helix Gallery from 8.45 - 13.30, and it will consist of international speakers, panel discussions from DCU researchers and a small exhibition of some of DCU's research activities. (ask Luke Quinlan for registration details).
CER is currently going through some structural changes; such as a changing of the guard in our steering committee members, and hope to have a new strategy in place in January 2024.

Office of Civic Engagement

The DCU in the Community's iteration of the Head Start in the Community course, created and funded by College Connect, started on 15 Nov. 2023. This program has been designed to offer potential future mature students a chance to work on the soft skills and hard skills needed for higher education. The course will run from 15 Nov. 2023 - 14 Feb. 2024, with a break at Xmas time.
DCU has been represented at a number of Northside Partnership events recently, most notably the Northside Partnership Community Forum.
The office of civic engagement is making inroads to forming a more effective partnership with the Dublin North-West Partnership

Natalja Matease, Office of Civic Engagement:

Presidents Awards for Engagement 2024

The DCU President has approved the working group's proposal to him in September and Stuart Heenan is working on the new webpage which will promote the President’s Awards and will streamline the application process. The working group will meet again this Wednesday 22nd November.

DCU in the Community

Very successful and well attended acrylic painting workshops were held in August, September and October 2023. Due to high demand, it has been decided to continue acrylic painting workshops in QTR4 (December 2023 -January 2024). 86 students attended acrylic painting workshops in total throughout the QTR 3. https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/news/2023/oct/acrylic-painting-workshops-november-2023
33 students enrolled for the new 6 weeks Introduction to Psychology course which started in November 2023. https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/news/2023/oct/introduction-psychology

Ryan Carey, SS&D Widening Participation (College Connect):

Awarded funding under the Ireland Against Racism fund along with SALIS for voter education/registration workshops for refugees/IP applicants for the 2024 local elections and anti-racism training videos

Rosie Savage, School of Inclusive & Special Education

Paula Lehane in the School of Inclusive and Special Education acts as Patron Rep on Shellybanks ETNS' Board of Management and speaks to staff when requested by principal.
Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray has authored an Information Booklet for Parents on Support Pathways for Children with Additional Needs, which was recently launched in partnership with the Childhood Development Initiative, Tallaght.
Elizabeth Mathews is providing CPD training to the deafness SIG of the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists.

Masha Chernyakova, Physical Sciences

Dr. Paul van Kampen chaired the NCCA's Leaving Cert Physics Development Group
Dr. Paul van Kampen run the Irish Olympiad of Experimental Science
Dr. Masha Chernyakova and Dr. Oisin Creaner make presentations for general public during the DCU science week.

Justyna Byrzykowska, DCU Volunteer

Two Volunteer Fair’s were organised this year to reach and engage with a diverse number of students from two campuses. St. Patrick’s Campus Fair took place on the 9th of October, and the Glasnevin Campus Fair on the 10th of October.25 organisations attended. A survey was conducted on both days, 132 students have filled it out. This allowed for a better understanding of student volunteering needs in DCU and for feedback on the Volunteer Fair’s.
Attended a Volunteer Coordinator meet-up in TUD. It was the first coordinator meet-up since Covid-19.

6.AOB

Time and dates of the next Civic Engagement meetings to be reviewed at the next meeting
Knowledge broker events, details to follow

7.Next Meeting

The next meeting on 30th January 2024 has been rescheduled to 7^th February 2024 @12.30pm

2023 October - Civic Engagement Forum minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.30pm

Tuesday 3^rd October 2023, Room G401, St. Patrick's Campus+ Zoom

Attendance:

Una Redmond, Leah Ridgway, Antoinette Patton, Naadiya Carrim, Rosie Savage, Louise Hopper, Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, Cara Greene, Laurence van der Haegen, Emma Monahan, Grainne Reddy, Roisin Blunnie, Robert Gillanders, Deirdre Corby, Maria Chernyakova, Deiric Ó Broin, Luke Quinlan, Siobhán Seoighe, Natalja Matease, Emer Ni Bhradaigh, Carine Laure Metiefeng Mambou, Ryan Carey, Leeanne Hinch, Peter Admirand, Aisling Mc Kenna.

Apologies:

Christine O'Kelly, Justyna Byrzykowska, Laura Grehan, Laura Mahoney, Liam Macgabhann, Pádraig Murphy, Samantha Fahy, Trudy Corrigan, Agnés Maillot, Emma Clarke.

Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed all existing and new members of the Civic Engagement Forum and provided a brief overview of the Civic Engagement Forum meeting format.

It was noted that meetings will continue in hybrid format and all members were invited to submit updates through Google Form which will be the core element of the future meetings due to the high volume of information.

Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Leeanne Hinch and seconded by Luke Quinlan. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes.

Matters arising

N/A

President's Awards for Engagement

A Working Group from members involved in the President’s Awards across the University joined together to review, streamline, standardize and centralize DCU President's Awards process. The group have met on three occasions to date and will continue to meet regularly to see the review through to successful completion.

A dedicated President’s Awards webpage is being designed to promote the President’s Awards and to streamline the application process.

For the 2023-2024 President’s Awards Season, the dates are suggested as follows:

Thursday 11 th April 2024 – President’s Awards for Engagement.
Thursday 18 th April 2024 – President’s Awards for Professional Staff
Thursday 25 th April 2024 – President’s Awards for Research.
Thursday 2 nd May 2024 – President’s Awards for Teaching and Learning.

Re: President’s Awards for Engagement:

Call for nominations is scheduled for December 2023. The deadline for receipt of nominations will be in mid-February 2024. No changes to the adjudication process, but the Working Group recommend ruling out self-nominations.

Campus Engage

Deiric Ó Broin briefed Civic Engagement Forum members on Campus Engage and its areas of activity:

Community-based Teaching and Learning
Engaged Research and Innovation for Societal Impact
Student Volunteering
Planning for Impact

It was noted that Campus Engage is still going through a review process in the Irish Universities Association system.

Reports and updates

Emer Ní Bhrádaigh, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge:

A 1-day conference for those working or volunteering with social enterprises, charities or community organisations, or anyone with an interest in the social economy will take place on Friday, 3 November in the Ashling Hotel. More details to follow.
Enactus Ireland is being dissolved & being brought in with Enactus UK which will be Enactus UK and Ireland now. DCU won’t be participating any more in the Enactus social entrepreneurship competition due to the low student participation.

Siobhán Seoighe

Oifig na Gaeilge’s online staff Irish courses, starting in October 2023
A committee of Irish language officers met on DCU Campus recently to talk about a new language act.

Deirdre Corby, PATH 4 call

Phase 2 of PATH 4 is about all about addressing the inclusivity goals in the new National Access Plan (HEA).

It consists of a competitive call for proposals for the enhancement of course provision in higher education for students with intellectual disabilities.

Starting in 2023, the total funding available under PATH 4 Phase 2 is €3m per annum (or €9m over three years).

I have made attempts to draw a diverse cross university team for a possible application. While we can build on the success of the DCU Ability programme which was situated in SNPCH, to maximise potential wider DCU participation is required. Unfortunately this has not been possible. I am not aware if anyone else in DCU is looking at this call and of course would be happy to help.

It is the very first time the department has provided a specific fund for Higher Education Institutions to provide courses for students with an intellectual disability. Indeed our own research within the DCU community https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities2030029 showed that opening education to a diverse student body benefits everyone within the University.

Laurence van der Haegen, Access Outreach Officer

The focus of DCU Access is to improve equity of access to college. In Outreach, we deliver a range of outreach initiatives to students in our 25 linked DEIS schools and in the community. Relevant events coming up include:

1. Maths Drop-ins - Wednesdays (6-8pm) - always looking for volunteers as number are high
2. College Awareness Month - Nov'23 inc. a series of events:
- Empowering Communities (1st Nov'23) - A series of workshops on access to third-level education to empower community & youth workers to have conversations on Education with their target groups.
- Combining Sports & college (06/11/23) - Event to raise awareness and aspirations of students with a passion for Sports.
- Teaching as a career (15/11/23) - Students share their experience with students aspiring to become teachers.
- Access to College - (27/11/23) - Short talks followed by roundtable event. Themes: Finance, CAO, Hear, Dare, Mature students & FET
3. Faculty tasters (Feb'24) - We are looking for Faculties to support the event by offering short bite-size workshops to 5th year students during Reading Week.

Masha Chernyakova, Physics

School of Physics Week-long TY Programme - 40 second level students; School of Physics Leaving Certificate Practicals - 450 second level students; STEM Teacher Internship Programme - 56 industry collaborators, 100 second level STEM teachers, 25 primary STEM teachers; Science on Stage - 300 second level STEM teachers; Space week open night, 200 participants; participation in the ESA- and NASA-supported project to coordinate amateur astronomers to observe Exoplanets with small, privately owned telescopes.
Erasmus + projects: STAMPEd/RISE/STEM Digitalis - 100 second level teachers

Grainne Reddy, Age Friendly University

Love of Life Long Learning Programme modules are starting next week
55 delegates from Malta visited on 18th of October

Deiric O’Broin, Office of Civic Engagement

The Office of Civic Engagement has been leading DCU's involvement with the Dublin Belfast Economic Corridor Network (see https://www.dbec.info/ for more details) and is currently involved in two research projects. The first project is funded by the Shared Island Unit and is examining the potential of a network of innovation centres along the corridor. The research is being carried out by KPMG. The second project is an analysis of the skills development ecosystem along the corridor and is at an earlier stage of development. The research will be carried by colleagues in UU and DCU.
We hosted a meeting of councillors of all local authorities last Thursday

Úna Redmond, Student Life

Clubs and Socs Recruitment Days were very successful, with record numbers signing up this year. It brought great colour and excitement to both campuses. It is heartening to see this engagement in the early weeks of the semester. The U continues to be the centre of social and recreational activity on campus, with events and meetings taking place every day.

Luke Quinlan, Centre for Engaged Research

The CER webinar series 'The Power of Collaboration' will commence this academic year. See schedule below:
September 28th - Robert Gillanders
October 26th - Samantha Fahy
November 30th - Deiric O'Broin & Paula Dolan
December 21st - Breige Casey
January 25th - Mathias Urban
February 29th - TBC
March 28th - Brenda McNally
April 25th - TBC
CER report on practicing engaged research at DCU nearly complete - publish in December
CER event on December 11th is currently being organised - inviations to be sent in October
CER currently transitioning from research centre to research support unit. Plan is this will facilitate a new CER strategy with more specific achievable goals, etc. in the future.

Carine Laure Mambou, Dublin City University/Girls’ Education: Catalyst For Elite Women’s Empowerment

Training session with girl's and women about education( formal and non formal) and it's importance
training session about personal development, self confidence, mental health issue and their correlation woth education
training session about girl’s education: more girls and women in steam with role model
Upcoming event: pan-african “steam is girls” campaign inspire change 2024

Hannah Goss, School of Health and Human Performance

Marketing convenor for the School of Health and Human Performance.
Co-ordinate School efforts with Science Week, the Smarter Travel Student Awards, and other outreach and engagement activities.
Keen research interest in participatory methods, and currently lead of LifeLab Dublin (a co-designed health literacy intervention for young people from socio-economic disadvantage).

Una McCabe, School of Arts Education and Movement

School AEM is consistently involved in arts related engagement with the community and news about those events is posted on our School webpage. We work closely each year with an Arts Council funded artist in residence.
This year Dave Rudden (writer and storyteller) will perform for 450 of our students, and local schools will be invited. He will also be involved in smaller projects in collaboration with local schools. Una McCabe and Michael Flannery's SHAPE project (Social Health, Arts, and Personal Education) will continue with older citizens via DCU Age Friendly University.
There will be a student art exhibtion, site specific student performances in the Botanic Gardens, a drama and social justice project with a local school, as well as other projects currently in their planning stages.

Antoinette Patton, College Connect Programme DCU / Access/ SS &D

-DCU Community Education Forum
-'Headstart in the Community' Pilot with 4 community organisations
-Schools workshops with STAR NTRIS and the DCU Traveller and Roma Officer
-Pathways and Finance workshops with Balseskin Reception Centre (Refugees and IPA)
-Empowering Communities with DCU Widening Participation Officer (Youthworkers and Community Leaders)
-In talks with Mountjoy Prison Training Unit and Wheatfield Prison Education Unit for 2023/24 'Changemakers' programme
-Planning for 'Uni in the Community' launch

Ryan Carey, SS&D Widening Participation (College Connect)

- Disbursed 5 University of Sanctuary scholarships to taught postgraduate students
- Awarded funding by the DCEDIY to run voter education workshops for refugees/IP applicants for the 2024 Local Elections and produce anti-racism training videos

Leeanne Hinch, CTYI

During the summer we had >1000 teenagers attending classes with us in St. Pats campus, while we had another 1000 primary school students attending classes in DCU's Glasnevin campus.
We launched a handbook for supporting gifted children in St. Pats campus, and it was launched by Minister Roderic O'Gorman. The event was attended by staff, students, and parents.
We also started the CTYI alumni speaker series where award winning author Sally Hayden was joined by Andrew Payne for a fireside chat in St Pats. The event was attended by CTYI alumni and current staff and students.
Over the coming months we will be running our programmes for students aged between 6-17 on campus in DCU.
We have ~400 TY students on campus in DCU each week where they will be taking first year modules.
We will have an additional ~100 teenagers attending DCU campus on one Saturday per month where they will be working on research projects.
We will have ~650 primary school students on campus each Saturday. Their parents and/ or guardians will also be attending for orientations and any guest lectures that we run throughout the programme.
We will also have ~120 students from DEIS primary schools in the local area attending classes specifically arranged for them on Wednesday afternoons in the coming months.

Rosie Savage, School of Inclusive & Special Education

Sinead McCauley Lambe has been working with schools in a voluntary capacity to provide CPD in relation to Handwriting Development and Personal Social Development (Puppet Workshops) and has more upcoming sessions planned with various schools.
Laura Gormley is engaged in a cross-border research project with QUB, there are two autistic research assistants working with us. The project aims to identify the terminology preferences (person-first vs identity-first) and IEP priorities of the autistic community and compare these to the preferences and priorities of educators supporting autistic students, with a view to making recommendations to the educational community, which centre the autistic voice. The project is funded by SCoTENS seed funding.

Sylwia Kazmierczak Murray, School of Inclusive and Special Education

as a school, we are involved in a few participatory research projects. For example, as part of her PhD research, Leanne Connolly is consulting with students in Irish Special Schools, their parents and their teachers, on their views and experiences of post-school preparation and transition. Kathryn O'Mahony and Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray are funded by the DECDIY to develop national guidelines to include disabled children and young people in decision-making, and this process involves engaging with representatives from Disabled People's Organisations, and consulting with disabled children and young people via Hub na nÓg which is a national centre supporting children and young people participation.
Leanne Connolly is also on a team of Irish Research Council funded research project on Supporting Transitions Including All Learners (STIAL), this project will commence on 30th September. The project aims to provide access to career guidance information and transition support to career guidance counsellors and senior cycle class teachers working with students with intellectual disabilities and their parents in mainstream post-primary and special schools.
Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray works with Childhood Development Initiative in Tallaght in designing and implementing responses to local needs in community, this involves capacity building for professionals and information for parents (one recent project is focused on designing and implementing school avoidance toolkit for parents and schools).
Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray is also volunteering on the Board of Directors and Governance Subcommittee of the Dublin North West Partnership, an organisation promoting self-development, well-being. training, education, and employment opportunities for individuals and community organisations in the Dublin North area.

Liam Macgabhann, Nursing, Psychotherapy & Community Health - Recovery College

Just completed community capacity building project in NEIC Dublin around Dual Diagnosis. Presently delivering community capacity building in mental health and substance misuse communities across Europe (Erasmus Cooperative Partnership), including Dublin North.
Two reports due over next month.
About to lead out on a proposal to provide Recovery Education nationally into the Prison Services, hosting Director General and Prison Governors, along with potential consortium stakeholders at DCU in November.

Justyna Byrzykowska, DCU Volunteer

DCU Volunteer Fair is taking place on the 9th of October on St. Patricks Campus, and on the 10th of October on Glasnevin campus. 25 organisation attending on GLA, and 19 on SPC. Please spread the word with all staff members and students as this event only takes place once a year.
Comhlamh: Mandatory meeting for all staff and students involved with volunteering to take place mid November. This is to ensure everyone follows Comhlamh's updated code of practise.

Eabhnat Nifhloinn, Mathematical Sciences

Members of the School of Mathematical Sciences are involved in organising outreach activities during Maths Week, Science Week, and Space Week.
The School also runs a Transition Year programme for a week in April, as part of the Faculty of Science Transition Year programme.
The Maths Learning Centre has been involved in a number of outreach initiatives, providing drop-in mathematics support to post-primary level students over the years.
Prof Turlough Downes has been on the Board of the Irish Research Council since 2020.

Leah Ridgway, School of Electronic Engineering

Summer 2023, ran 3 ICT summer camps on electronic and computer engineering. 80 participants (50 girls) aged 12-15 participated. We hope to repeat in summer 2024 and also put on an intermediate level camp to facilitate participants who wish to return for a greater challenge.

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability DCU

DCU will submit its second iteration of the DCU Climate Action Roadmap in response to the governments Public Sector Climate Action Mandate. A copy of this Roadmap and other plans and reports are available at https://www.dcu.ie/sustainability/dcu-climate-action-plan-2021-2026.&nb…; There are lots of actions so please review. As part of this roadmap, the DCU Senior Management Group will take Climate Action Leadership training in Oct 2023. Similar training will be rolled out to other senior staff throughout 2023/2024. DCU is working with the IUA and other Universities to develop a collaborative training programme that will minimise resources use across the sector and deliver a consistent message.
DCU Sustainability has revised the DCU Travel pages and there is now lots more info on how to get to DCU and we are working with the DCU estates team to deliver improving facilities for active commuters across all campuses - https://www.dcu.ie/travel-to-dcu.  Make sure and sign up for Walktober 2023 there is still time - https://www.dcu.ie/travel-to-dcu/smarter-travel. 
DCU Sustainability is currently participating in the DCC Ballymun Decarbonisation Zone project.
A new Biodiversity Working Group has been established with academic and DCU Estates members to optimise the future potential and current engagement with, and impact of, external campus resources and biodiversity across the University as a whole. Please email sustainability@dcu.ie for more info.

Cara Greene, ADAPT Research Centre, School of Computing

ADAPT just ran #ExploreAI for Researchers Night on Friday 29th September in the Douglas Hyde Gallery (https://www.adaptcentre.ie/explore-ai/). #ExploreAI was an interactive showcase of cutting edge research on artificial intelligence (AI). Exhibitions included challenging the public to go up against the machine as the ‘Art or AI?’ Museum of Very Modern Art, Virtual Reality and the SignOn project amongst others. There was also an AI dilemma Café on the night as well pop up talks including DCU Irish language work, Smart D8 collaboration and public patient data use in AI for better health outcomes.
ADAPT is rolling out our schools programme including AI in my Life TY programme and the All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO) which is in one in four schools on the island.

Aidan Driscoll, DCU Access service

Step up in STEM is a project to encourage more students from under-represented backgrounds to take up STEM degrees by engaging them through interactive STEM activities on campus and meetings and talks with current DCU students studying STEM. 800 students participated last year
We are always looking for work experience opportunities for students as they don't always have access to these opportunities so anyone who can offer work exeprience places to local students, it's an invaluable opportunity.

Naadiya Carrim, Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics

Upcoming events: Navigating Data-Driven Futures in the Helix on Nov 15. This is strategically focused at industry and is an external event.

AOB

St. Pat’s Campus, Community Garden visit:

Next Meeting

Date of the next meeting: 21^st November 2023 @ 12.30pm

2023 April - Civic Engagement Forum minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 10am , Tuesday 25^th April 2023, A204, Glasnevin Campus + Zoom

Attendance:

Adam Daly, Deiric Ó Broin, Luke Quinlan, Úna Redmond, Justyna Byrzykowska, Antoinette Patton, Leeanne Hinch, Aisling Mc Kenna, Ryan Carey, Nathan Murphy, Samantha Fahy, Emer Ni Bhradaigh, Deirdre Corby, Grainne Reddy, Natalja Matease, Carine Mambou, Shaun O'Boyle, Agnés Maillot.

Apologies:

Laura Mahoney, Liam Macgabhann, Pádraig Murphy, Siobhán Seoighe, Emma Clarke.

Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed all existing and new members of the Civic Engagement.

Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Samantha Fahy and seconded by Nathan Murphy. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

Matters arising

N/A

President's Awards for Engagement

Deiric Ó Broin provided an overview of President's Awards for Engagement process including judging and flagged that the review of the President’s Awards process is still ongoing.

Deiric thanked everyone involved and congratulated the winners of this year’s President’s Awards for Engagement.

Civic Engagement forum membership

Deiric Ó Broin briefed Civic Engagement Forum members on the key objectives of the Forum. The University's Civic Engagement Forum has been in operation for approximately 12 years (terms of reference are available at: https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/civic-engagement-forum ) and we are currently seeking nominations to the Forum for the coming 2-3 years.

The Research offices at university and all the schools were invited to nominate a representative to the University's Civic Engagement Forum and we are expecting much broader representation from the research centres and schools for the next meeting.

Reports and updates

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability

DCU have submitted to the SEAI and HEA the Climate Action Roadmap 2023. The implementation of this plan (i.e. a 51% reduction in energy-related greenhouse gas GHG emissions by 2030) will impact everyone and everything we do
All senior management in the university is going for climate leadership training
DCU Green Week was held in March 2023

Úna Redmond, Student Life and Nathan Murphy, DCUSU

The semester is finished & student activities are down now
Preparations for the Darkness into Light event, May 6th. Volunteers are welcome.
Club and Societies awards were held on the 31st March
SU Elections: a new SU team is taking over in June
There are 3 DCU students have been elected to USI next year

Aisling Mc Kenna, Quality Promotion Office

Aisling Mc Kenna provided a brief overview of applications and successful QUID Projects for 2023. The QUID funding call was successful and completed.

Justyna Byrzykowska, Volunteering

A lot of positive feedback received from organizations who participated in the DCU Volunteer Fair 2023 in February
Our new initiative the Volunteer HUB focuses on delivering volunteering advise, promotions, event assistance and networking opportunities to local communities. The Volunteer HUB takes place every Tuesday morning in DCU in the Community centre in Ballymun.
There is no active GAISCE Pal at the moment and Justyna agreed to do the training
There is a national volunteering week in Galway next week

Grainne Reddy, Age Friendly University

Love of Life Long Learning Programme modules have just finished
This week is a Global Intergenerational week, and all are welcome to attend
A very successful 6 weeks paint classes were held in St Pat’s
AFU Global Network is now moving to Arizona State University

Luke Quinlan, Centre for Engaged Research

The current lecture series are coming to an end and another lecture series are planned for autumn/winter.
Ongoing preparatory work on DCU orientated staff training for Community Based Research
PPN summer school organised by the Centre for Engaged Research will take place from 29th May to 2nd June
A new initiative “Community Research HUB” will start tomorrow in DCU in the Community Centre, Ballymun. It will focus on working with and providing a research capacity for community members and local organisations.

Emer Ní Bhrádaigh, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge

Claire Farrell was appointed as an Innovation, Creativity & Innovation (ICE) Project Lead
Enactus Ireland National Competition 2023 will take place on the 1st of June
A Revitalize project requires a part-time research assistant asap

AOB

It was agreed to go digital and do not print Agenda & Minutes for the Civic Engagement Forum Meetings from now on.

Next Meeting

Date of the next meeting: TBC.

2022 December - Civic Engagement Forum minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.30 pm

Tuesday 6^th December 2022, PG10, All Hallows + Zoom

Attendance:

Deiric Ó Broin, Luke Quinlan, Christine O'Kelly, Úna Redmond, Justyna Byrzykowska, Natalja Matease, Siobhán Seoighe, Nathan Murphy, Samantha Fahy.

Apologies:

Eleanor Healion, Emer Ni Bhradaigh, Laura Mahoney, Trudy Corrigan, Liam Macgabhann, Padraig Murphy.

Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed all members of the Civic Engagement.

Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Siobhán Seoighe and seconded by Nathan Murphy. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

Matters arising

N/A

President's Awards for Engagement

Deiric Ó Broin provided an overview of President's Awards for Engagement process including judging and a marking matrix. The review of the President’s Awards process is still ongoing.

In the following discussion, it was suggested to add a marking matrix to the awards webpage: https://www.dcu.ie/engagement/presidents-awards-engagement.

Campus Engage

Campus Engage is an initiative promoting civic and community engagement which was launched 8 years ago (https://www.campusengage.ie/) and it is going through a significant review in the Irish Universities Association system at the moment. Laura Mahoney is the university nominee on the board.

Engaged Research & Innovation: New Train the Trainer 6 Week Online Course: https://www.campusengage.ie/our-work/researchers-working-with-society/t…

Reports and updates

Christine O'Kelly, Age Friendly University

A training workshop on ageism is tomorrow with the Irish Senior Citizen Parliament and Valerie Cox for all staff.
Age Friendly University will also be the Irish lead again this year for the global Intergenerational week at the end of April.
TRACEUS project just finished, more details at https://traceus.eu/
Age Friendly University have just waved farewell to a visiting academic from California who was with them for three months and will be hosting a Slovenian student for an Erasmus project for the Spring and a visitor from the USA medical military corps coming to work with AFU.
A “social prescribing” initiative, starts in 2023 and aims to prevent and combat social isolation and loneliness through art and culture.

Úna Redmond, Student Life:

Classes finished last week
Club and societies engagement level is back to the pre Covid time, all activities are on campus and societies are very active again
Continuous work with Community Employment
Reducing time poverty with students through focus on student accommodation issue

Luke Quinlan, Centre for Engaged Research

Preparatory work for the next season lecture series
Staff training (Campus Engage) module details to follow

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability

DCU is now a Certified Bicycle Friendly Employer
Ongoing work on:

improving transportation to and from university
reducing carbon footprint particularly from transportation
public sector labs working group - improving the energy efficiencies in university laboratories

Reduce Your Use weekly updates in collaboration with the Estates Office
DCU have been issued with a Climate Action Mandate from HEA which requires to achieve a 51% reduction in energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030
Declan Raftery has been identified as a climate and sustainability champion
DCU have joined a new Nature Positive Universities Alliance –

Siobhán Seoighe

The diploma through the medium of Irish (level B2) course is up and running and the feedback is very positive
Under the provision in Section 10A of the language Act DCU is now obliged to do at least 20% of the advertising in Irish and to spend 5% of the advertising budget on advertising in Irish in the Irish language media. This increased the amount of design and image translations.
Not having the SU Irish language officer for the first 6 weeks created an additional workload
Cumann Gaelach has a constitution

Justyna Byrzykowska, Volunteering

The DCU Volunteer Fair 2023 will take place in February
The Volunteering HelpDesk takes place every two weeks on a Tuesday from 1pm-3:30pm in the U building.

Nathan Murphy, DCUSU

A well-attended walkout for affordable, accessible education took place on 13th October
A Black History Week was held in November
A very successful Freshers Month in the U Building

Trudy Corrigan, Institute of Education

A report and a seminar was organised in November 2022 in collaboration with the Irish Research Council and Age & Opportunity.

This research is very much focused on ageism within the context of the workplace but also within the context of civic engagement.

AOB

Time for next year meetings is going back to 10am.

Next Meeting

Date of the next meeting: TBC.

2022 October - Civic Engagement Forum minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Hybrid Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.30 pm, Tuesday 4^th October 2022,

INVENT+ Zoom

Attendance:

Deiric Ó Broin, Luke Quinlan, Samantha Fahy, Siobhán Seoighe, Nathan Murphy, Natalja Matease, Joanna Ozarowska, Aisling McKenna, Emer Ni Bhradaigh, Justyna Byrzykowska, Una Redmond.

Apologies:

Laura Mahoney, Padraig Murphy.

Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed all members of the Civic Engagement.

Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Aisling McKenna and seconded by Samantha Fahy. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

Matters Arising

N/A. Ongoing review of the President’s Awards process.

Reports and updates

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability:

Sustainability office have moved to All Hallows Campus, Drumcondra house
Over 70 teams from DCU are participating in Walktober
They university expects to have carbon budgets by the end of the year
The green flag has been raised on the All Hallows Campus
Bike clinics are on Glasnevin Campus on a weekly basis and every second week on All Hallows and St. Pat’s
Waste prevention and segregation - virtual game is being piloted in DCU, Maynooth and UCD

Emer Ní Bhrádaigh, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge

The Revitalize project led by the Wheel moving along nicely
MSc in management and digital business has the highest numbers ever (22students)

Deiric Ó Broin, Office of Civic Engagement

The Innovation in Politics Institute is looking for 10 000 members to sit on the citizens jury

Luke Quinlan, Centre for Engaged Research

The new Centre for Engagement website (https://www.dcu.ie/engaged-research) is up and running
The online lecture series are ongoing at the moment

Nathan Murphy, DCUSU:

DCU SU is at the final stretch of Freshers Month 2022
A national Student Walkout: Thursday 13^th October at 11:11am
An Irish Officer By-Election is next week

Siobhán Seoighe

Ongoing work on revitalizing of an Cumann Gaelach
A diploma through the medium of Irish (level B2) course starts next week on St Pat’s Campus
The provisions in section 10A of the language act will come into effect on 10th October 2022. More details to be provided.

Aisling McKenna

DCU Fuse is taking place on Friday 21st October
Coffee Morning - Thursday 20th October

Joanna Ozarowska, DCU in the Community

All education programmes are running smoothly at the centre
DCU in the Community is hosting a Recovery College Programme at the centre
Many applications were received from newcomers who are now residing near the DCU in the Community centre, but due to the level of English, it was not possible to accept the applications.

Justyna Byrzykowska, Volunteering

A lot of students’ interest about general volunteering opportunities
Not much engagement from St. Pat’s students. Any ideas how to get St. Pat’s and All Hallows students more involved are welcome.

Úna Redmond, Student Life:

An encouraging start for Clubs & societies with lots of new joiners
Virtual helpdesk & membership are continuing successfully

The Civic Engagement Forum members list is to be updated.

Next Meeting

Date of the next meeting: Tuesday 6th December 2022 (All Hallows)

2022 May - Civic Engagement Forum minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Hybrid Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.00 pm, Tuesday 10^th May 2022,

H206+ Zoom

Attendance:

Room H206	Zoom
Deiric Ó Broin	Joanna Ozarowska
Laura Mahoney	Padraig Murphy
Samantha Fahy	Laura Grehan
Mariana Colman	Veronica Crosbie
Nathan Murphy	Liam MacGabhann
Natalja Matease	Una Redmond
	Joanna Ozarowska
	Juliette Kinsey
	Padraig Murphy

Apologies:

Aisling McKenna, Emer Ni Bhradaigh , Elizabeth Mathews.

Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson), welcomed all members of the Civic Engagement .

Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Laura Mahoney and seconded by Samantha Fahy. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

Matters Arising

N/A

President’s Awards for Engagement 2022

The awards ceremony was held on Wednesday 27th April 2022, in SA 101
Thanks to the adjudication panel, to all who nominated and thanks to all people who were involved in organising this well attended event
The Civic Engagement Forum members had a discussion around the number of students’ nominations that have dropped this year. It was noted that not all engagement projects were reflected in nominations.
It was suggested that the criteria needs to be specified more clearly in the next year’s call for nominations

Reports and updates

Mariana Colman, Centre for Engaged Research

The online lecture series run successfully with 150 registered for tomorrow’s lecture
Dublin City PPN summer school will run in a few weeks

Siobhán Seoighe

Restructuring/rebranding of Irish language events
Irish language courses started at the end of March
Ongoing work on the dedicated DCU Gaeilge website

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability:

The incorrect spelling on the 'Peace Pole' has now been corrected. The Raheny Rotary Club donated the pole to the university and it was installed on All Hallows campus.
They university expects to have carbon budgets by the end of the year
The launch of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society took place on May 5, 2022 on the DCU St. Patrick’s Campus, with a keynote address by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.
A well-attended event with the climate ambassadors was held last week
IUA Future of Ireland: Rising to the Sustainability Challenge will be held on 20th May at TU Dublin (or watch online via Zoom)
The AALEA Report Towards Climate Sustainability of the Academic System in Europe and beyond has been just published. The report was prepared by the ALLEA Working Group Climate Sustainability in the Academic System. This report delves into academia’s negative impact on the climate through its own operations from the perspective of various stakeholders that play a key role in shaping the academic system. It also makes a series of tailored recommendations to mitigate detrimental effects of the academic system. The report will be presented on Thursday 12 May at the ALLEA General Assembly, which will also feature a panel discussion on the topic.

Nathan Murphy, DCUSU:

The new executive team is taking over in June
DCU Students’ Union organised a well-attended Pieta’s House Darkness Into Light last week
Ross Boyd has been elected as a Vice President for Campaigns of the USI

Úna Redmond, Student Life:

Uaneen Module portfolios have been marked up and awaiting results
Clubs continued as normal for the most parts, societies activities were really impacted in semesters II and I.

Laura Grehan, ADAPT:

Exploring the possibilities of Citizens’ Think-In public forum model to see what is the potential of it to inform research and relevant emerging policy.
The Researchers' Night proposal was successful
Last week ADAPT met with the Senator Lynn Ruane who is a member of the Seanad Éireann Civic Engagement Group

Veronica Crosbie, University of Sanctuary

University of Sanctuary Ireland Inaugural conference will be hosted in DCU on 9^th-10^th September
DCU's MELLIE Programme collaborates with IMMA and MELLIE’s graduation event was hosted in IMMA
Re: Masters in refugee integration, a new model which will allow to get a work experience in the community related to refugee issues is being introduced
DCU is hosting a sizeable number of refugees from Ukraine on Glasnevin and St. Pat’s campuses
IRIN (Irish refugee integration network) will offer free English language classes, practical information such as interactive maps and factsheets on Ireland, buddy systems, as well as information clinics for specific groups.

Padraig Murphy, School of Communications

A full module dedicated to Engaged Research will be going ahead again this semester
SMART-ER (ECIU project) is going ahead and a lot of different departments in DCU are involved
Campus Engage have just completed 6 engaged research training events
Celsius annual science communication on public engagement series this year were looking at the absence of science museums and science centres in Ireland.

Juliette Kinsey, Age Friendly University:

2 very successful and well attended events were held in April: Global Intergenerational week and Dublin Learning City Festival
Traceus Project (Traditions, Recipes, & Cuisines of Europe using Smartphones) is kicking off. Volunteers are welcome.
A new programme called Facing Interchange has started and its first information session was held on All Hallows campus yesterday
A Positive Ageing photo competition has been launched

Date of the next meeting: Tuesday 4th October 2022.

2022 February - Civic Engagement Forum minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Hybrid Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.00 pm, Tuesday 8^th February 2022, A204 + Zoom

Attendance:

Room A204	Zoom
Deiric Ó Broin	Aisling McKenna
Juliette Kinsey	Bobbie Hickey
Laura Mahoney	Emer Ní Bhrádaigh
Mariana Colman	Joanna Ozarowska
Natalja Matease	Liam MacGabhann
Ross - DCUSU VP C&C	Mary Rose Sweeney
Samantha Fahy	Maura Coulter
	Siobhán Seoighe
	Terence Rooney
	Veronica Crosbie

Apologies:

Padraig Murphy, Una Redmond.

Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson), welcomed new and existing members of the Civic Engagement Forum and introduced Laura Mahoney Executive Director of Engagement.

Minutes

The previous minutes were signed off by Civic Engagement Forum members. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

Matters Arising

It was agreed to move future meeting times from 10am to 12pm to facilitate attendance. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 10^th May at 10am.

President’s Awards for Engagement 2022

Call for nominations was sent in January 2022
Deadline for receipt of nominations Monday, 14th February
It will be the in person event and the awards ceremony is scheduled for 27th April

Reports and updates

Mariana Colman, Centre for Engaged Research

Preparation for the lecture series which will be held during April – June period
Training session for DCU staff will be held this week with over 100 participants registered for the session
Ongoing work on the preparation for the Summer school with the Public Participation Network (PPN)

Siobhán Seoighe

A Special Screening of the Film Arracht, followed by an interview and Q&A with the film's writer and director, Tomás Ó Súilleabháin has been rescheduled to 16th February 6pm. The event is free and all are welcome.

Ross, DCUSU:

DCUSU election campaign started yesterday
Green Week 7 - 11March
The RAG week is next week
Clubs and Societies are doing very well with a lot of events on

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability:

Some Green Week events will be held online and some face to face on campus
Bicycle workshops and bike safety awareness week is next week, 16th February
National carbon budgets have been approved by Oireachtas committee
2030 target: reduction of energy emissions by 51%

Juliette Kinsey, Age Friendly University:

A new credit module was set up in January
Love of Lifelong Learning modules are ongoing
Organisation of Events for Global Intergenerational week for Ireland, a new website was set up https://giwireland.com/
Dublin Learning City Festival encouraged by UNESCO
Traceus Project, COPE project

Liam MacGabhann, Recovery College:

A well-attended transcultural music and dialogue event was held in DCU SOLAS room in January
Ongoing work with the EU partners on ERASMUS grant
Continue to provide normal programmes as usual
Wider engagement initiative: Community Development Mental Help Network

Joanna Ozarowska, DCU in the Community:

Continue to provide regular programmes
Currently recruiting for 3 QQI level 5 and level 6 courses that will be starting in 3 weeks
Continue to provide education guidance and assistance with college applications to adults returning to education
Ruth Lynam, Student Volunteer Coordinator moved to the NGO and DCU in the Community is recruiting for paid student internship

Veronica Crosbie, University of Sanctuary

The outdoor We Are Here|HEAR exhibition is coming to DCU at 11am on 1st March 2022
Lorraine Mcilrath is a new chair of the University of Sanctuary Ireland
SALIS continues to support many projects every year

Emer Ní Bhrádaigh, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge

The Revitalize project kick off meeting is scheduled for this week, more details to follow.
Grow it yourself projects: 2 positions are available in the sustainability and data analytics areas

Laura Mahoney, Executive Director of Engagement

Laura provided a brief overview of her new role which she took on 3 months ago and thanked Civic Engagement Forum members for interesting updates and for inviting her to the meeting.

Mary Rose Sweeney, Head of School, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health

“As I am edging towards the end of my term as Head of School I hope to have more time to devote to research so am very happy to link in with this group again. Daire has asked me to revaluate the Autism Friendly Project impact for autistic students on the ground at DCU so I hope to start working on this soon. It’s been running for 3 years now so a good time to look at this. We are also planning a new arm of the study to support staff who have family members who are autistic who might like supports”.

Date of the next meeting: Tuesday 10th May at 10am.