Project
The goal of this project is to keep Kilmurry Church, a deconsecrated Church of Ireland building, available and open to the community. The committee has been running the space on a caretaker basis for the last number of years. We are auditing what community groups are operating in the area and what their needs and requirements are. We are exploring ways to raise awareness of the building and its availability to community groups. We would also like to create a mission statement and strategy document to help guide the future direction of the Kilmurry Church project as it seeks to become a focal point of a growing community.
While current activities have provided income to maintain the building more needs to be done to turn the church into a true community space.
Kilmurry Community Committee, local community organisations and residents.
To date, Kilmurray Church has supported a number of community initiatives. A key objective is to give community groups and organisations the opportunity to access resources in their local university. We support our community partners to effectively engage with faculty and students. Community members are provided with information and resources. Evaluation of their experiences of engaging with UL faculty and students and meeting project expectations is undertaking at specific timelines throughout the practicum. Community Evaluation of the project is designed into the project from start to finish. As part of their assessment, students present a briefing to their community partner setting out the outputs and outcomes of the project.
Learning
The goal of this project is to keep Kilmurry Church, a deconsecrated Church of Ireland building, available and open to the community. The committee has been running the space on a caretaker basis for the last number of years. We are auditing what community groups are operating in the area and what their needs and requirements are. We are exploring ways to raise awareness of the building and its availability to community groups. We would also like to create a mission statement and strategy document to help guide the future direction of the Kilmurry Church project as it seeks to become a focal point of a growing community.
To date, the building has been used by such diverse groups as UL鈥檚 world academy to mother and baby groups. While these activities have provided income to maintain the building more needs to be done to turn the church into a true community space and generate more income. Working with local groups/organizations, students will engage in both independent as well as collaborative learning. The module is designed to enable students to develop the capacity to apply curriculum-based knowledge in a real-world setting and self-assess and develop graduate attributes to work effectively as a member of a multi-disciplinary team in collaboration with external community stake-holders. Students will also be supported to articulate their ideas to a range of audiences within different cultural frameworks and setting and be provided with opportunities to make substantial and positive contributions to the development of this project. Students will also be supported to articulate their ideas to a range of audiences within different cultural frameworks and setting and be provided with opportunities to make substantial and positive contributions to society.
Practicum students undertaking this project will work with Kilmurry community committee, local residents and peers from other international universities.
Both formative and summative assessment methods will be used. Assessments will be designed to complement the interactive teaching and learning approaches. In particular, methods conducive to workplace assessment will be employed. These will include weekly reflection diaries, a group presentation, a reflective assignment and self-assessment activity. Students will be expected to produce a community briefing report and present their project outputs and outcomes to their community partner.