2010 press releases
Posted 28 June 2010
AIT Students Complete Projects with Willow Park Community Group
Students researched the needs of youth, ethnic groups and families living in the area. As part of their project, they also designed action plans to address these various needs. The action plans recommend, for example, creating a supervised social area for teenagers with WiFi access, establishing alcohol and drug awareness programmes for young people in the area, developing a life skills project for lone parents and having a multicultural sports day in the estate in which all can participate.
Colette Tuohy, community worker said: “AIT has been very supportive of all our community development work in Meadowbrook, providing us with both volunteers and space for our youth club and homework club. We are delighted to be involved with this research which will provide vital information for future service provision in the area.”
Senior lecturer in the Department of Humanities, Ashling Jackson, said that: “This project was a very valuable experience for the students and for the residents of Meadowbrook. The Willow Park Interagency Group is hoping to implement a number of the action plans emanating from the students’ needs assessment, which will hopefully have a positive impact on the area and the quality of life enjoyed by the residents.
“This is a very useful model of partnership between the local community and a third level institution. Our students have an enormous amount to contribute to society in terms of their ideas and energy, and I am delighted that they are very interested in doing future volunteer work in Meadowbrook,” she added.
The students undertook this work as part of the community development module on the BA (Hons) in Applied Social Studies in Social Care. The one-year add-on honours degree equips learners with the knowledge and skills to assume key roles in the management, administration, development and delivery of quality care services across a wide range of disciplines.
Further information about this programme and all of AIT’s social care courses is available at www.ait.ie/humanities.
