The Community Links Programme helps in the alleviation of educational disadvantage by facilitating opportunities, equal access, participation, experiences and outcomes through work with learners of all ages at community, primary, secondary and higher levels of education. It delivers a range of programmes that foster personal, academic and career development; and involves DIT staff and students in learning and research activities that both enhance academic development and offer tangible benefits to disadvantaged people through the empowerment of individuals and thereby their communities.
The Community Links Programme was established by Tommy Cooke in 1996. DIT itself was established over 120 years ago as a craft school in inner city Dublin delivering courses to local people. Over the years it developed into one of the largest providers of third level education in Ireland today, with approximately 22,000 students and 2,500 staff. In 1996 the then President of DIT asked Tommy to re-engage DIT with disadvantaged communities. All the resources financial, human, material and political are utilised to facilitate the programme’s objectives.
The underpinning philosophy of the Community Links Programme is that education for citizenship begins at a very early age i.e. primary or pre- primary and continues throughout life. Empowerment of individuals through engagement and enhancement of self esteem, leading to greater participation in education, brings about social change. In this context our Community Links Programme targets socio economically disadvantaged people at primary, secondary, tertiary and community level. The overall objective is to aid in the alleviation of educational disadvantage particularly in the most marginalized socio economically disadvantaged groups in inner city Dublin although some of our programmes operate at national and international levels. These interventions take the form of outreach projects / programmes involving engagement, enhancement of self esteem, confidence and motivation that address this need, while making learning fun. Personal development and making positive choices in life underpin prevention of drop out and absenteesism, and increase attainment among disadvantaged groups. Programmes within DIT (inreach) are more focused on those disadvantaged students that do make it to College but perhaps still require continuing support and engagement. The Community Links programme has currently 6 major projects operating in a highly targeted fashion. The programme is funded by Government, local government, voluntary and corporate partnerships. Currently 23 staff (16 full time, 7 part time) are employed on the programme, and work in partnership with academic and administrative staff and students across DIT and community members to achieve these goals.
The Community Links Programme is comprised of 6 elements. The programmes are:
Outreach: • Dublin Inner-city Schools Computerisation Programme (DISC) • The Digital Community Programme • The Ballymun Music Programme
Inreach: • The Access Service • The Mature Student Access Programme • Students Learning With Communities
International: Community Links is also involved with disabled young adults in Southern Belarus affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and with communities in Malawi, Africa.
The primary issues addressed by the programme are educational inequalities experienced by the most socio-economically disadvantaged individuals and communities, mainly in Ireland but also in developing countries. Through extensive consultation and partnership with these groups, the Programme develops initiatives to engage disadvantaged participants, to build self-esteem, confidence and motivation - key pre-requisites to progressing in education. Outreach programmes - Ballymun Music Programme, DISC and Digital Community – created and maintain partnerships with disadvantaged schools and communities, teachers and parents, to identify and meet their educational needs through the vehicles of learning / performing music, and computer technology. Expectations are clearly set out by all partners and monitored with regular meetings of all stakeholders. The Access Service and Mature Student Access Course work with schools, teachers, pupils, community groups and community education providers to create tailored routes to DIT for disadvantaged groups, positively discriminating in favour of young people with lower final school exam scores to counteract the financial or home advantages of more traditional students. Access students in DIT are given additional financial, personal and social supports, designed in consultation with participants on the Access student forum and Access advisory board (which includes teachers, parents and community members). The Mature Student Access Course prepares adults (over 23 years) from disadvantaged backgrounds for college, who if they successfully complete the course are guaranteed entry to undergraduate study, in DIT or in Trinity College, through a partnership agreement with TCD. The thread tying outreach with inreach work is the Programme for Students Learning With Communities - our Service Learning / Community Based Research programme . An advisory board made up of students, staff and community partners, as well as ongoing regular meetings with staff, community groups, and student representatives, and regular discussion fora, ensures that these programmes meet real needs for all participants.
The Community Links programme is central in increasing participation in higher education from under-represented sections of society, coordinating DIT’s Widening Participation strategy (2010).
Each year approximately a thousand 6-18 year olds across 9 schools participate in the Ballymun Music Programme, availing of instrumental tuition and ensemble opportunities on-site in schools. The programme has a scholarship arrangement with DIT Conservatory of Music. The recording-quality music room was opened in 2009 by the Irish President and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
In the disadvantaged inner-city, DISC involves 38 schools, 70 teachers and 800 schoolchildren, to facilitate regular use of computers in education, making learning fun. The annual “I Festival” exhibits children’s ICT Project work in public libraries around Dublin.
The Digital Community Programme provides computer facilities and training for disadvantaged inner-city residents in 25 high density flat complexes adjacent to the DISC schools. The programme, managed by community volunteers or Dublin City Council staff, offers informal and DIT- and Microsoft-accredited courses.
DIT was a founding member of the national Higher Education Access Route for socio-economically disadvantaged students. The DIT Access service works directly with 70 schools. Currently there are 450 access students in DIT (5% of DIT intake). The first PhD access student graduated in 2009.
The Mature Student Access Programme (MSAP) started with 25 students in 2009, and increased to 140 students in 2010 to meet demand. With the national Vocational Educational Committee it designs and runs pre-Access initiatives for potential students considering the MSAP as their next career step.
Students Learning With Communities involves 1000 students and 70 staff across 40 courses, and over 20,000 community members with over 100 community organizations, in service-learning/CBR. SLWC was awarded European Framework 7 research funding for 2010-2014 for PERARES (Public Engagement in Research and Research Engagement with Society), to develop community-based research with 26 EU partners.
Community Links is the first program of its kind in Ireland to bring technology into the community, as opposed to attempting to doing it the other way around. In this manner, the technology and therefore the skills learned, are accessible to a wider range of people from Dublin and the surrounding areas.
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