Mercy College Celebrates Coolock

We, Transition Year students in Mercy College Coolock, have been working on a project focused on the theme of community for our Young Social Innovators module. Our project is called Mercy Celebrates Coolock.

What inspired your team to start this project?

We decided to focus on the theme of community because we wanted to give back to the community of Coolock. We wanted to show Coolock in a positive light and from a different perspective. We felt it was important to challenge the negative stereotype some people may have about Coolock and highlight the great facilities, amazing people and strong sense of community that makes Coolock a great place to live and go to school. We also wanted to show that young people actually care about their local area and want to have a positive impact on their community.

What are the main goals of your project? How do you hope to make a difference?

The goal of our project is to help create a sense of community spirit. We want to challenge people’s perceptions and make them think differently about the area of Coolock. We wanted students in our school to feel proud of where they live and where they go to school. When we started our research in class and Googled the word ‘Coolock’ the top search results all showed something negative. Coolock is a place full of kind, hardworking and supportive people. We wanted to show all the good in Coolock.

How does your team work together? Do you have specific roles, or do you share responsibilities?

As part of our project we have tried to organise different activities. For example, we organised a community mass and carol service in St.Brendan's Church in November to create a positive atmosphere and show all the members of the community that young people care. We read readings with a community and inclusion message and sang carols to spread festive cheer. We gave each parishioner a kindness card to take away with them. We hoped this would encourage everyone gathered there to spread kindness to those they meet. When we were organising this event we all worked together as a team. We shared our ideas and voted so that all decisions were fair. We practiced the carols together and included the other TY classes so that it became a whole TY event. We made sure everyone had the chance to showcase their talents. Some students sang solos or were involved in the offertory procession. Others created the PowerPoint or read at the mass. Everyone felt included and took charge of one part of the event. Anytime we organise something we share our ideas and share the workload.

What advice would you give other young people interested in starting their social innovation projects?

We would tell other young people to just go for it. Never be afraid to put yourself out there. We would tell them that their ideas are valid and just because they’re young that shouldn’t hold them back.

Once we started working on our project we realised that we had lots of good ideas of things we could do in our local area. We also think it’s important to share your ideas with other people especially younger students in the school. We set up an Instagram called @mercy_Celebrates_Coolock to show the other years all the work we do. We hope they will be inspired to make a positive change when they get to TY.