DPR News
UCC Safe and Sound Staff Soapbox
The UCC Safe and Sound project held a Staff Soapbox event on January 23rd 2025 in the Dora Allman. Safe and Sound is a year-long campaign that works with the UCC community and external collaborators to create media and organise events that foster awareness of issues around sexual violence and harassment. Safe and Sound aims to make sure everyone in the UCC community is included, from students to staff. The Soapbox event was an opportunity to highlight the work of the project to staff and for speakers to talk about the work they are doing that is already contributing to making our campus safer and more sound.
Prof. Nuala Finnegan, the PI for the project, opened the event explaining the origins of the project and the work that had been done in the first six months. Chloe Boland, research assistant on Safe and Sound, then showed some examples of video content that have been made for the project’s social media. The room was also decorated with different examples of posters that have been created so far, covering topics such as Image Based Sexual Assault and Spiking.
The speakers at the event were Dr. Ciara Staunton, Gary Mulcahy, Dr. Sharon Lambert, and Dr. Caroline West. Dr. Ciara Staunton presented on stalking and its impact on victims drawing from her research in the Irish context. Gary Mulcahy spoke about his role as Head of Student Life, the importance of Campus Watch and the culture change he has seen in UCC since 2017. He emphasized how we need to keep pushing this change to happen. Dr. Sharon Lambert shared her work on trauma, how difficult it can be for survivors to come forward and our collective role in making change so that the world is better for the next generation. Dr. Caroline West, UCC’s Sexual Violence and Harassment Prevention and Response Manager, reflected on her role since starting last January and highlighted its exciting potential for forging collaborations. Caroline also facilitated some interactive activities with attendees about how the project can better facilitate staff engagement and what supports staff would need to help support students in UCC.