In 2012-13 the College Equality Fund received 24 applications. Fourteen projects were selected for whole or part funding. This is a total allocation of €13,028 to date. One project was also deferred from 2011-12.
2011-2012 Administration
The Equality Fund Sub-Committee membership 2012-13 comprised of :Professor Mélanie Bouroche (chair), Professor Inmaculada Arnedillo Sánchez, Ms Aisling Ní Chonaire, Ms Ann-Marie Moore, Mr Andrew McEwan, and Ms Michelle Garvey (Secretary).
The themes for the 2011-2012 call were:
- Feeling part of it, on and off-campus,
- Balancing the books in College,
- Understanding one another,
- Global campus/ internationalisation,
- Linking the College community,
- Listen, speak and be heard,
- The campus community of the future.
Projects details
Feeling Part of it On and Off Campus
Who: Trinity Vincent de Paul Society and NIID
Theme: Feeling Part of it on and Off Campus
Details: The National Institute for Intellectual Disability(NIID) and the Vincent de Paul run a joint venture to ensure the full enjoyment and integration of students from the NIID into campus life.
The group meets every Wednesday for two hours and engage in activities to enrich the extra curricular lives of both NIID students and volunteers. Funding supported various activities including a celebration of Chinese New Year, excursions, and the purchase of arts and crafts materials.
Link/contact: animhao@tcd.ie
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Supporting Leisure for Students with Asperger's Syndrome
Who: Unilink in Collaboration with the Disability Service
Theme: Balancing the Books in College
Details: The number of students with Asperger’s Syndrome and Autistic Spectrum Disorder entering into university has increased considerably over the past few years and is likely to continue to do so in the future with increased access to services and supports. Individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome face a myriad of challenges on entering into third level education, one of which is their engagement with the social aspects of college life.
As a result, the Unilink Service in collaboration with the Disability Service and students with Asperger’s Syndrome have developed a weekly Social Leisure Enhancement Group to support the students engagement and participation in leisure activities. This group enables the students to meet weekly within a safe environment within college to foster participation in leisure pursuits and with the support of the Occupational Therapists from the Unilink Service offers them the opportunity to develop the practical skills required to participate in meaningful, student-chosen leisure activities with their peers. The group chooses to engage in different leisure occupations that they have identified as being enjoyable and meaningful to them, examples of this include: board games, book clubs etc. The equality fund enabled the group to purchase leisure equipment in particular board games to support their leisure participation in the group.
Link/contact: clgleeso@tcd.ie
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Balancing the Books - Ways to Manage your Fatigue and Develop a Balanced Routine 
Who: Joint initiative between the staff and students of Occupational Therapy and the Unilink Service
Theme: Balancing the Books in College
Details: Often, students with disabilities experience levels of fatigue that can significantly disrupt and impact on their academic performance and participation in college life. Fatigue is not solely limited to those with disabilities, but is experienced at high levels in the college population as a whole. The project will develop an informative and interactive resource on fatigue management for College staff and students. The resource will be in the form of an interactive workbook that will be available in print form as well as online.
Link/contact: nolancl@tcd.ie
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Did you Know....
Who: Niteline, S2S, Parlour, SU and GSU
Theme:Listen, speak and be heard
Details: This project aims to promote positive approaches to mental health and to reduce the stigma associated with seeking support by jointly promoting all peer-to-peer supports on campus (Niteline, S2S, Parlour, SU and GSU) whilst addressing some of the barriers students may face in terms of seeking support. The campaign will challenge the perceptions or concerns that might prevent any student from accessing peer services to make the step towards speaking to someone seem a much simpler and easier thing to do. Ultimately it aims to promote a sense that needing help or support is a normal part of campus life, to encourage a more open discussion between students about mental health issues and positive mental health, as well as significantly increasing the accessibility of all peer-based support services in TCD.
Link/contact: astleyr@tcd.ie
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Supporting students with disabilities on professional courses and in practice education – an online resource and support guide for staff and students.
Who: Disability Service and staff and students from: Nursing & Midwifery, Social Work, Education, Medicine, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Radiation Therapy, Dental Science, Pharmacy, Clinical Speech and Language, Deaf Studies, Psychology (Clinical & Counselling).
Theme: Feeling part of it, on and off-campus,
Details: The Disability Service is creating an online guide for all stakeholders (e.g. students, academic staff and placement supervisors) on supporting disabled students on professional placements. Planned supports for students with disabilities on placement in professional courses is an under developed area at present. Feedback from students and staff indicate the need for more information and practical case examples of supports that work in public settings. The benefit of the online guide is that it will function as a practical resource and support guide for current and potential students with disabilities on professional courses and in practice education. It will also provide guidance and improved disability awareness to the supervising staff on the placements.
Link/contact: reillyde@tcd.ie
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Pathways transition assessment and planning tool
Department/Society: Disability Service
Theme: Facing the challenges: supporting creative solutions (deferred from 2011-12)
Details: The Pathways Transition Tool is a companion programme to the Pathways website and the Pathways Outreach project. It is a web-based assessment and planning resource for second level students with disabilities preparing to start College. The tool is an editable pdf document structured into five modules: Preparing Myself for the Future, Independent Living, Academic Skills, College Application and Course Choices, and Identifying and Using Reasonable Accommodations. Each unit is introduced through a video that has been scripted and filmed by TCD students.
The planning tool allows second level students to plan their transition to College, adapting their goals and needs as they progress through their school career. Goals can then be reviewed collaboratively with a transition ‘partner’, be that a parent, teacher, Guidance Counsellor or other practitioner.
The Planning Tool has been downloaded by students, parent and practitioners across a range of disabilities, and for use by students in TY to post-Leaving Cert age ranges. This demonstrates a breadth of application and interest which is very encouraging.
Link/contact: alison.doyle@tcd.ie
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Trinity Tarzans
Who: Sports Centre
Theme: The Campus Community of the Future
Details: The Sports' Centre will link with local city centre primary schools to organise Climbing Lessons on its Climbing Wall. It is expected that this programme will allow a coming together of children who would not normally interact with each other for health promoting activities. It will also act as an introduction to the College campus for children who may not have any association with the College. This will offer the potential to create an affinity with College and to instil an aspiration to study here.
Link/contact: gillian.ogrady@tcd.ie
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Developing Female Speakers to Participate at the Oxford Women's Open
Who: Historical Society
and Law Society
Theme: Listen, Speak and Be Heard
Details: The debating circuit is not equally represented by women with a lack of both female competitors and judges. This project sought to encourage a greater number of female students to debate competitively. Funding was used to help prepare and send female students to the Oxford Women's Open debating competition.
Oxford Women's Open is a debating competition held exclusively for women, which allowed TCD students to network among female debaters from other Colleges. The participants reported greater confidence following the competition and an increased level of awareness of the issues facing female debaters. The event provoked the TCD students to consider what can be done in College to encourage and develop young female debaters.
The Historical Society now plans to disseminate the outcomes and the learning of the project through a debate and a workshop.
Link/contact: auditor@thehist.com
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The Eliz Week
Who: The Elizabethan sub-committee under the University Philosophical Society.
Theme: Linking the College Community
Details: The Elizabethan Society was an all-female debating society in Trinity College, established in opposition to the then male-only Hist and Phil. It was eventually subsumed under the Phil in the early 1970s, when the laws of the society changed, allowing women to become members.
The 'Eliz Week’ was organised to coincide with International Women’s Week in College, 4th-8th March 2013 and included events that aimed to promote feminist discourse. It linked Eliz alumni to current members of the college community and assessed the most pertinent issues facing young women today. The Equality Fund allocation contributed to costs involved in an afternoon feminist paper reading and an evening debate on the topic ‘This house believes that feminism and the pro-life movement are incompatible’.
Link/contact: secretary@tcdphil.com
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Past, Present and Future: The Multiple Roles of TCD Women Chemists
Who: The School of Chemistry
Theme: Linking the College Community
Details: This project will raise awareness of the role of TCD women Chemists, in the development of their discipline, and in society. Chemistry, as is typical for disciplines within the Physical Sciences, has a systemic dearth of female academic staff. This year the school is one of two trial Schools in the Faculty of Engineering, Maths and Science for the implementation of Gender Action Planning, and for the first time in its history, the School has elected a female Head.
The Equality Fund will provide the financial support to enable a half-day symposium involving female speakers who by example have been instrumental role models for future graduates. The School also hopes to identify the first female graduate of the School and to present the historic backdrop to the event. The School has also made contact with a large number of its alumni, and hopes to develop some of these links so as to provide a living web-based archive to record the past contributions made by female TCD Chemists to Irish society.
Link/contact: smdraper@tcd.ie
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Edgeways
Who: Emer Delaney and the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies
Theme: The Campus Community of the Future
Details: This project will invite the Transition Year class from a school in Dublin 1, to visit Trinity’s campus for a one-day event. Moving between a variety of campus spaces visiting students will participate in small-group workshops, facilitated by volunteer postgraduate students from a variety of disciplines, focused on analysing gender in the media. At the end of the day, visiting students will be provided with information about studying in Trinity, and in particular the Trinity Access Programme, as well as links to further resources on gender issues. Subsequently, a report booklet will be produced, with contributions from both school students and postgraduate facilitators, and copies will be given to all persons involved and to other interested bodies. It is hoped that this will work as a pilot project to kickstart a dialogue between TCD postgraduates and the students in Larkin and other secondary schools. Edgeways Project Facebook Page.
Link/contact: delanee1@tcd.ie
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Creativity Challenge
Who: DU Amnesty International
and DU Gender Equality Society
Theme: Listen, speak and be heard
Details: DU Amnesty organised an artistic competition and asked the College community to submit a piece of art (e.g. a painting, sketch, poem) representing their views on women’s rights issues in 2013. The aim was to develop a visual representation on campus of what students feel are still pressing issues for women globally.
DU Amnesty held an exhibition of all of the pieces submitted during International Women's Week and invited Bill Shipsey, former Chairman of Amnesty Ireland, Colm O’Gorman, current CEO of Amnesty Ireland and Dr. Angela Griffith from the Art Department in Trinity to select a winning entrant.
The exhibition had a great visual impact, with Colm O’Gorman commenting on the importance of art in depicting human rights struggles. Since the exhibit, DU Amnesty have been approached about showing their exhibit in association with a Women's Aid exhibit what is due to run in April 2013.
Link/contact: bradym7@tcd.ie
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All Faiths and None - A Forum on Faith Perspectives in Twenty-First Century Ireland
Who: Theological Society
Theme: Understanding One Another
Details: The religious identities within College are continuously changing but there is limited opportunity for constructive discussion and debate on faith. This forum aimed to provide a space for this discussion through workshops and panel debates. This forum included a keynote speech by Hans Köchler, Existential Philosopher and included speakers from various faith backgrounds, religious demographics in the most recent Irish census, and religion's place in education and state policy. For more see the full Forum agenda or the Forum on Faith Facebook Page.
Link/contact: leddenm@tcd.ie
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Provision of a Trans* Health Awareness and Training
Who: Trinity LGBT
Theme: Understanding One Another
Details: The initiative will form part of a growing movement within college and in Ireland towards understanding what it means to be trans* and the specific needs for a trans* person that are taken for granted by someone whose gender identity matches their legal sex. Members of key College support areas such as the College Health Centre and the Student Counselling Service will receive a day-long training course with the Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) and health professionals recommended by them. This will have a long-term impact, as this becomes part of the institutional knowledge of these college student services. Beyond the specific help for trans members of the college community, it will also further add to students in general being more aware of issues relating to gender identity.
Link/contact: quillw@tcd.ie
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ShoutOut
Who: Eoin O'Liathain and individual students under the ShoutOut project
Theme: Feeling part of it, on and off-campus
Details: ShoutOut aims to strengthen the culture of inclusiveness and equality as it pertains to sexual orientation in College by acknowledging, celebrating and sharing it. ShoutOut developed a student run website, a Facebook page and hosted associated events.
ShoutOut sought to export College's culture of tolerance by training TCD students to visit Dublin schools to present workshops to transition year students on LGBT issues. Twenty students were trained by BelongTo in child protection issues and workshop facilitation and then delivered workshops to 240+ second level students across Dublin. These sessions helped second level students better understand LGBT issues and encouraged openness and respect within schools for LGBT students. They also promoted TCD as an open, inclusive, environment for potential students and promoted a positive mental health message regarding LGBT issues and TCD.
ShoutOut hopes to continue its work in the new school year and branch out to other universities across Ireland.
News item regarding the ShoutOut project
Link/contact: oliathae@tcd.ie
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