Community Spirit

Working in collaboration with local resident and community groups, the Community Spirit CWELL team project was designed to support and enhance community spirit in Kileely and Ballynanty. Following community consultations which were facilitated by the local residents' association and St Munchin's community services centre, the team embarked on a series of tasks to refurbish locally significant community spaces, which including the historic graveyard in Kileely, the Marian Shrine in Ballynanty, and the playground in Ballynanty. The project team held interviews with older members of the community in order to capture their memories and worked with Ballynanty Residents Association to create a newsletter template to improve community communications.

The project is designed to enhance community spirit in local Limerick communities by collaborating with community residents and organisations to improve the local amenities that are available in the community. The areas for refurbishment that were selected provide both social and physical spaces that support the physical and mental wellbeing of both young and older people in the community.

• St Munchin’s Community Centre
• Ballynanty Residents Association
* Community Engagement Facilitator, CWELL
* UL Engage

In addition to being subject to an evaluation by an international panel of community-oriented academics in the UNESCO Knowledge for Change (K4C) consortium, the project has received written testimonials from all community partners, attesting to the impact it has had as an engine for further local development.

This module comprises workshop-based project management training delivered in CWELL classes with practical experiential learning, applied in a community- based project, designed to address an identified need. Module delivery comprises a series of practical exercises, designed to support knowledge of, and capacity building for project management. Students taking this module will be expected to design and deliver a community- based project to address an identified need.

The aims of this project are three-fold. First, to conserve and revive established community spaces and places of significance in Ballynanty and Kileely. Second, to promote community well-being by making local amenities in these areas a focal point for community activity. Community spaces in urban areas are known to improve mental health. Third, to augment and support existing community assets and expertise. Restoration projects in collaboration with a community build skills and promote the maintenance of community assets. The Community Spirit CWELL team hope that in restoring these places and spaces to their original condition, more people will get involved in their maintenance and upkeep.

The Community Spirit CWELL team will work in collaboration with
• St Munchin's Community Services Centre
• Ballynanty Residents Association
• University of Limerick Community Engagement Facilitator, CWELL.
• UL Engage

There will be two assessments points to this module, each worth 50% of your final mark. The first assessment will comprise a site visit to your project by a panel of CWELL assessors. The second assessment will comprise the creation of a Project Portfolio detailing the project’s design and implementation and your participation in it. Guidelines concerning the creation of portfolios are available from the module’s Sulis site.