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To reach out to elderly people in our community. To interview them on their stories of growing up in Wicklow Town and put these stories onto a QR code and display these on planters and benches in the town. With a particular interest in displaying them by the Murrough Riverwalk. They scan the code and see a video of someone that has lived a long and fulfilled life in the town this can be done by audio or video. We also want to reach out and offer help and assistance to those who need it.
Our Social Issue
Ageism and Loneliness in the elderly
Why We Chose It
We chose this social issue as it's close to many of our hearts. So many of us have people in our lives who are facing the challenges of ageing and we wanted to reach out to do all we can to help. We want to capture their stories and let them be told throughout the town and displayed proudly on our planters and benches. We feel the ageing population is an area that constantly needs to be addressed and highlighted as loneliness and isolation can make old age a very frightening place to be.
Our Goal
Our big idea is to create QR codes that we can display throughout our town and along the Riverside of stories of people who have lived long and fulfilled lives in Wicklow Town. We would love these stories to be heard so by scanning the QR code their voices, pictures and/or a video would be seen and heard. Our level 3 group is creating planters and benches that we hope to put along the river that the QR codes can be put on.
Our Innovative Action
We have held a coffee and bingo morning, we advertised this in the independent and Wicklow Times. We have asked at our coffee morning for the guests to come back and record their stories and have an interview. We have sourced our QR codes for these, we have contacted the council to get permission for these to go on planters, we are organising a fundraiser to cover costs. We organised the local newspaper to do a write up on our project. We are working with our level 3 group to tie the 2 projects together.
Our Impact
We have got such positive feedback from people in our community. The coffee morning was such a success and just incredible to see it all come together. It was our way of reaching out and showing we care and that we are serious about making a difference. There were so many stories told at this and our guests were delighted to be asked back to be interviewed and their life story recorded. We are going to do a skills swap too which will be amazing to teach and learn new skills.