Kidpreneurship hits the greens of West Cork T
BY BEN PANTER
he Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme’s new targetdriven regime has delivered what seems like a successful and certainly fun programme to impact on the lives of 10 to 12 year olds in West Cork. And if Donald Trump’s presidential bid grinds to a shuddering halt, then at least Clonakilty could provide the latest batch of apprentices. Kidpreneur, the new SICAP-funded programme delivered by the West Cork Development Company ran a three-day summer camp after the success of a similar programme in local schools. Kathryn Kingston explained, “Basically, under the new SICAP programme, we have to come up with an idea to work with 160 kids on the West Cork lot and 86 kids on the Bandon/Kinsale lot. So we literally created this from scratch. “First we ran an all-schools programme. We covered Bandon, Dunmanway, Skibbereen and Carrigaline. It was a fourweek programme, one hour a week. “What we wanted to do was to bring it out into the community afterwards. We followed it up with summer play-camps in residential estates. We didn’t blast advertising across the community, we actually went straight into the community and recruited them,” she said. That may seem like an approach more akin to Navy press-ganging (maybe they are used to it in sea-faring West Cork) but it helped reach a greater diversity of kids according to Kathryn: “Mostly we met them out on the green. We talked to them about what we were doing and it worked. “It is an unusual way, but it gets right to the people that we want to get, because if you
Nathan Hanrahan and Gavin Coakley at an entrepreneurs’ brainstorming session. put an advert in the ‘paper then you only get the kids who already look up newspapers and already do things. This gets the type of kids who might otherwise miss out,” she said. Kathryn’s assistant Corina Hanrahan (on work placement from UCC’s Department of Marketing & Management) explained the creative ethos behind the pragmatism of kiddie capitalism. “It’s ideas generation, not business in a bag - they are here working with loads of different textiles and mediums, while others are going to work online. The slant is very much on ideas generation and entrepreneurship should be about that.” The hardest working member of the team Samara Hanrahan-Thomas (15) told Changing Ireland, “I am showing them all the ideas they can use - I had my own business when I was younger selling jewellery, so I show them how
Photo: BEN PANTER.
to make it and pass on selling skills.” West Cork Development company have delivered one of the first brand new programmes under the new target driven regimen of SICAP and it looks like a success and certainly fun. But that’s enough from the grown-ups what do the next generation of movers and shakers think?
Kidpreneurs: West Cork’s programme is different to the national Junior Entrepreneur Programme which runs for 10-16 weeks, is more intensive and must be delivered in schools by teachers.
Promoting best practice: Here’s how itextraworks pocket money from their endeavours. Kidpreneur is an entrepreneurial education
Engagement with customers at a market stall allows the children gain a multitude of actual skills comprising social communication, confidence, money handling and working as a team. Camps during the summer were held in Skibbereen, Dunmanway and Clonakilty. The outcome - young business minded individuals bursting with creativity and originality of thought.
programme for primary school children combined with a practical project in an out of school setting. It is geared towards children in 5th and 6th class in primary school. The Kidprenuer Summer Programme ran summer camps that were marketed to children and parents as something “exciting, engaging and rewarding that kids can do in their spare time”. In the camps, the children explore: - what product they would like to make, - how to market that product, - who will buy the product and - how to cover their costs so as to make a profit. The programme immerses the children in a real business experience in their local area, from which they should emerge with
“This is the last generation in a position to help prevent
For more information, contact Kathryn Kingston. M: 087-9876390. E: kathryn@wcdp.ie W: www.facebook.com/KidpreneurCork
Caption (left): Kelly Oforji hard at work.
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dangerous climate change.” - Mary Robinson
Carrickmines tragedy Travellers’ deaths spur renewed protests that date back to the 1960s
Changing Ireland
T
BY BEN PANTER
he Carrickmines tragedy in which ten people died represents the greatest loss of life due to fire since the Stardust disaster almost 35 years ago. In the immediate aftermath, as tributes were being paid to the deceased, which included four children, the issue of housing for Travellers became a subject for national debate. Protests since the fire have been highlighted by the media, which may lead to the impression that Travellers are only beginning to mobilise for more equitable housing rights. As is often the unfortunate case, it takes traumatic events to highlight injustice and to pressurise governments into change. However, less than two weeks prior to the tragedy a new housing assocation was launched by Minister of State Paudie Coffey with the aim of tackling the issue of accommodation. Cena – the Cant word for home – was set up to build and develop culturally appropiate housing. Bridgie Casey, accommodation officer with the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) said at the launch, “It is very hard to see my people living in despicable conditions... now is the time to generate new thinking.” Thomas McCann of the Traveller Counselling Service also expressed the concerns of many, “I question the local governments’ commitments because lots of funds budgeted for accommodation were returned to central government.” According to figures in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper that amounted to €282 million in unspent funds over a decade.
A VERY RELEVANT QUESTION
Minister Coffey responded to concerns from the floor about local authorities, “This is about building confidence in local authorities as well...Some are better than others...I believe Cena is very important because it is setting the agenda and setting the benchmark.” While eleven county councils applied to be part of the Cena pilot, most did not. Carrickmines may thrust the issue of Traveller housing into the public eye but as the Cena launch shows the issue is not a new one. Neither are the protests that have been highlighted since.
Children and women make the point clearly about Traveller rights. Photo courtesy Pavee Point. Bridget Quilligan of ITM told ‘Changing Ireland’: “Carrickmines has to act as a catalyst for change. It’s a fact that Travellers have been protesting since the 1960’s. “We have sat down with agencies and nothing has changed,” she said. Cena is admirable in that it gives ownership of housing development to the Travellers and has united support within the community but it does not absolve the State of their responsibilities, according to Bridget.
‘STOP THE STONEWALLING’
“It is not the solution, it is one solution, Traveller-led accomodation for Travellers,” said Bridget. “One of the main things is for us to run it as a community, to participate and drive change – the structures that are there are inadequate. “What we are looking for is the Department and local authorities to accept that Travellers have real needs and stop the stone-walling around the progress of development of Travellers accommodation,” she added. In 2002, legislation was introduced by the then Department of the Environment and Local Government making it illegal to camp in public areas, including on roadsides. At that time, 1,200 families were still without accommodation promised to them in 1995. The legislation was denounced - to no avail - by the Irish Human Rights Commission
‘No change, no progress’ from 1984-2015. A poster that featured in a protest in Dublin on October 28th. Pavee Point urge people to sign their petition and letter to An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, seeking to achieve progress on Traveller rights. Link: http://bit.ly/1KdqzoK and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, as reported in our Summer 2002 edition (cover story and pages 10-11).
remembering THE victims
The people who died in the fire in Carrickmines were: Thomas Connors (27) and his wife Sylvia (25), their sons Jimmy (5) and Christy (2) and baby daughter Mary (5 months), Willie Lynch and his partner Tara Gilbert and their children Kelsey (4) and Jodie (9). Tara was four months pregnant.
A boy born in 2012 in a high-income country can expect to boy born in a low-income country. - World Health Org’n.
Willie’s brother Jimmy Lynch (39) also died in the fire. Two children from Thomas and Sylvia Connors’s family survived, brothers Michael (7) and Tom (4). ‘Changing Ireland’ offers it’s sincerest condolences to the families of the victims and to the community.
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live to the age of around 76 – 16 years longer than a