2016 Press Releases
CARL honours community engagement trailblazers
UCC’s Community-Academic Research Links (CARL) initiative hosted its first Outstanding Community Engagement Awards ceremony to highlight the impact of its projects.
Celebrating CARL’s 50th student-community project, the event gathered community representatives, academic staff and students to draw attention to the significance of these projects to date.
We are looking to partner with community and voluntary groups for new projects. Find out more https://t.co/J5ddwbytSY @ucc @campus_engage pic.twitter.com/qaL4uHhou0
— CARL_UCC (@CARL_UCC) December 12, 2016
Madge Fogarty, founder of Postnatal Depression Ireland, stressed the benefits of engaging in collaborative endeavours, with awards presented to students for Outstanding Community Engagement projects.
Monica Coll and Siobhan Sully received awards for their work with Home Share Clare, which looks at alternatives to institutional respite services for families. The pair presented their findings at two national conferences, and the project report was referenced in a HSE report on alternatives to institutional respite. The community organisation used the project findings to leverage funding of €30,000 for the continuation of the service.
A big thank you to everybody who made the @CARL_UCC 50th project celebrations a great success @ucc https://t.co/1mIDtRU5zo pic.twitter.com/tVYW1pGK32
— CARL_UCC (@CARL_UCC) December 9, 2016
Another winner Hazel McDermott partnered with the Eating Disorder Centre Cork for her project, which involved surveying GPs and professionals to gain greater insight into their understanding of eating disorders. Her work has resulted in a follow up project with the School of Dentistry and the organisation is following on her recommendations arising from the project.
@CARL_UCC award winner Hazel McDermott, BSocSoc graduate from @UCCAppSoc, with @johbees and her supervisor Siobhan O'Sullivan pic.twitter.com/7KNyvLmXaA
— AppliedSocialStudies (@UCCAppSoc) December 6, 2016
MSc Corporate Finance students Emma Keane, Conor Scannell, Peter Bresnan, Conor O'Donovan, Ruiqian Yan and Sean Lordan joined forces with Carrigaline Lions Youth Centre for their project.
Congratulations to our student award winners. Celebrating CARL 50th student community project @kburns28 @campusengage @ucc @carl_ucc pic.twitter.com/zC7ZyzaMtp
— Tomás Tyner (@TomasTyner) December 5, 2016
A final award was made on the night to recognise the contribution and support of staff on CARL projects. Dr Kenneth Burns from the School of Applied Social Studies was named CARL Supervisor of the Year 2016. A founding member of CARL, Dr Burns has supervised the greatest number of CARL projects to date and is supervising three projects this year.
Fantastic to see @kburns28 recognised for his years of work on @CARL_UCC Receiving his award from @johbees this evening pic.twitter.com/7lJEkNVLsS
— Theresa Reidy (@theresareidy) December 5, 2016
Organisers described the event as “reflecting the increased focus of staff and students in forging partnerships with the broader community and in supporting activities and projects that address questions of broad societal interest.”