Cork Folklore Project have launched a new ‘Catching Stories’ initiative in a unique oral history and health collaboration. ‘Catching Stories’ is an online social history resource focused on infectious disease in Ireland in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It brings oral testimony and family memory together with an immunologist’s perspective, in a multi-media exploration of diseases such as measles, polio and tuberculosis.

Some of Ireland’s leading sporting organisations have come together with the Copenhagen-based International Sport and Culture Organisation (ISCA) to launch a global challenge aimed at reimagining what sport and physical activity might look like during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sport Ireland, the Federation of Irish Sport, the Irish National Centre for Outdoor Education and Training, University College Cork Sport, Cork Local Sports Partnership and ISCA are looking for the best ideas on how sport and physical activity can survive and thrive in a world remarkably different from what has gone before.

Cricket Ireland partner with Community Academic Research Links  in support of refugees and asylum seekers. The experience of refugees and asylum seekers engaging in sport is of deep interest to Cricket Ireland, the National Governing Body for the Sport on the island of Ireland. In a novel undertaking, they are collaborating with Community Academic Research Links in University College Cork to bring a research lens to investigate what they know to be true – that sports changes lives!

The Sanctuary Masks Initiative is an initiative by women living in direct provision centres to help themselves and other vulnerable people living in the community, in response to COVID19.

The Aphasia Café is an initiative of Dr Helen Kelly and her Speech and Language Therapy students (UCC Clinical Therapies Society) to support people living with language difficulties following a stroke or other brain injury. Unfortunately, current nationwide restrictions on gathering and socialising had seen the group have to pause their usual meetings. The good news is that they are now launching Ireland’s first Aphasia Home Café where people with aphasia in Ireland can sip their favourite cuppa while chatting with each other and us online.

Cork has a strong Indian community and lots of UCC's international study body come from India.  Many of these left Ireland and returned home, but others have stayed for various reasons. The Cork Community Support Group, established by the Embassy of India have rallied to provide assistance to this Indian community in Cork, supporting their welfare during a time full of uncertainty for these communities here and in their native India. 

Social workers have transformed their front-line work since the COVID-19 pandemic. UCC Applied Social Studies are hosting a FREE CPD webinar showcasing practitioners' initiatives on 3 June from 10.00-12.30 Irish time. All welcome.

Fistral provide Project Management training, used by the University in the past. They have been in touch with us to highlight thier free online training videos available to all, as well as free coaching/mentoring for anyone involved in the COVID-19 response.  They encouraged us to share the resources widely, so we're sharing them with you. 

UCC Staff member Marta Neto has been holding in person and online Empathy Cafés since before the pandemic. Since COVID-19 she has seen a large increase in interest and need for them in various settings, including to support front-line workers.  A facilitation practice that enables mutual active listening and supports dialogue, Marta has seen it be of particular value to community organisers and those involved in community building.  

Uncertainty is a hot topic during this pandemic. From organisational psychologists Terri Morrissey and Richard Plenty, the newly published e-book 'Uncertainty Rules? Making uncertainty work for you' focuses on protecting ourselves from anxiety rather than looking for long term sustainable solutions to the complex challenges that we face. 

Social distancing measures and remote working potential favours occupations located in Dublin and the provincial cities, a University College Cork report has found.

The study - Covid-19, Occupational Social Distancing and Remote Working Potential in Ireland by Dr Frank Crowley and Dr Justin Doran - uses occupational data and economic indices to examine what occupations have the most potential to adhere to social distancing measures and what occupations have the potential to carry on working remotely.

Occupations across Ireland’s economy are examined at sector and regional level within the analysis, with the report stating that a one size fits all economic policy approach to the crisis, is unlikely to resolve regional inequalities across Ireland.

University College Cork (UCC) is offering free courses so that workplaces across all sectors of Ireland’s economy are ready to resume operations under the Government’s phased roadmap. 

Prof. Irene Lynch Fannon, UCC School of Law is Chair of the Insolvency Committee of the Government Company Law Review Group. The Committee are currently preparing draft emergency measures to adjust certain company law provisions to support businesses during the economic opening. They are working together with partners at Departmental and Ministerial level as well as with sectoral interests. 

The Irish Cancer Society Cancer unfortunately has touched all our lives in some way. This year the ICS missed it's usual fundraising Daffodil Day so UCC friends and work colleagues Darrelle, Deirdre, Gavin and Michelle ran their "2 shave or 2 dye, dat is de question" fundraiser. Launched on May 15th they did their big reveal on May 22nd but fundraising is ongoing.

Marymount University Hospital and Hospice launched their ‘Move for Marymount’ campaign on Monday 11 May. The campaign, led by the physiotherapy team at Marymount, and supported by the Mardyke Arena, includes free and accessible fitness videos that can be easily followed along at home. Physiotherapy is one of the vital services delivered to patients and residents of Marymount and the department comprises a team of seven qualified and experienced physiotherapists.

As the city and country got behind Pietas Sunrise Appeal, staff fundraiser for Pieta House, Preventing Suicide and Self Harm provided an opportunity for the campus to show their support for this important organisation as physical distancing prevented the 10th Darkness into Light Event from going ahead. 

UCC Library is collaborating with BenchSpace Cork, a city-based creative community space. The library’s 3D printer will be used to print frames for face shields to be sent to community nurses and front-line healthcare workers.