A group of young girls from Dublin who felt young parents should get the chance to go back to education – they started this project with the aim of providing all the resources and information for young parents looking to return to education. They wanted to do this by using technology to show their information and research and also by getting the government involved to take their ideas and suggestions and make them a reality. After a debate the class settled on the topic they called “Crèche course in Education”, the issue being that young mothers still in school often have little or no support with childcare and they wanted to change that. They had seen first-hand the effect. A girl in their school had had to leave education to take care of her child. It wasn’t just in their school though. It was happening all over Ireland. There are different reasons why young mothers and fathers cannot continue in school, the main one being that childcare.
The Action
They collaborated with:
- Students in their school as well as teachers and the Principal.
- Childcare expert in their community- Emily Smartt Local crèches - to get her opinion and to research childcare in the area.
- The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister for Education and Skills – to lobby them on this issue.
They held a cake sale to raise awareness of their project and raise money for an app for the school. They created a website which contains lots of their research results, crèche and entitlement information and case studies to help girls in similar situations. They also created a Facebook page. They were in contact with the media (radio, local newspaper and teen magazine) about the issue.
The Impact
Their ideal outcome would have been that local crèches in the area would link up with the school and give students a discount on childcare. They hoped that Frances Fitzgerald would facilitate the creation of a voucher system for the students so they would get cheaper childcare and that their idea could be implemented across the country. Finally, they were working on launching their website and app to make the information they collected available to everyone.
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