Cork City, with four other cities in the Irish Network of Learning Cities went live for the global Festival of Learning via a Webinar. The five Irish Learning Cities were represented by their festival coordinators presenting an overview of their cities and Learning Festivals to a global audience. Irish Learning Cities Day to place on September 30 th , 2020 in a five-city joint initiative to promote learning across the cities, the city regions and the island of Ireland. Learning Neighbourhoods from Cork and Limerick shared examples of good practice on a webinar earlier in the day discussing what has been learned in local communities during the pandemic.
A highlight of the day was the presentation to Young people from the Cork Migrant centre, who were welcomed to the Lord Mayors chambers as the first recipients of a Cork Learning City Award, in recognition of their leadership in advancing inclusion and equity through learning. Nominations will open soon for a series of Cork Learning City awards across a variety of activities and age groups. Cork Learning City will recognise individuals and organisations who have demonstrated good practice in using learning to advance inclusion and equity in Cork. Two young people also were presented with Lord Mayors Medals and Awards during September as part of the Lord Mayors Youth Challenge ’We are Cork’ for completing a series of 20 different challenges over the Summer. T he ‘We are Cork’ Youth Challenge was developed by the Cork Education and Training Board Youth Services with City Council and other partners including Music Generation and Cork Sports Partnership, as part of the City Community Response to Covid-19. On September 29 th Cork Learning City represented by Denis Leamy, Chief Executive of CETB, and Séamus O’Tuama of ACE UCC were speakers in a panel debate hosted by Lowell City of Learning on the Future of Further and Higher Education Post Pandemic. The debate considered a vision for the future that is informed by the experiences of education systems worldwide during 2020. Atlantic Social Lab 11 th September - Webinar for Cork Social Enterprises entitled “Funding & Finance in Uncertain Times” run by the Atlantic Social Lab project in conjunction with the Irish Social Enterprise Network. Virtual mentoring clinic for Social Enterprises with the Irish Social Enterprise Network. A series of these clinics will be held in association with the Irish Social Enterprise Network. 29 th September – Webinar for Cork Social Enterprises entitled “Social Impact & Your Social Enterprise” run by the Atlantic Social Lab project in conjunction with the Irish Social Enterprise Network. Blue Vests Initiative Cork City Council in partnership with HSE Social Inclusion have distributed over 1000 Social Distancing Blue Vests through Community Groups across the City. The vests are designed as a reminder to give the person wearing them 2 meters space when they are out and about. The vests have been welcomed with open arms by those who have been cocooning. Feedback received from people cocooning, as they came back out into communities when restrictions eased, indicated that that they were very nervous and felt that people weren't giving them enough space. The purpose of the vests is to indicate clearly that the person is asking others to keep their two-metre distance and will allow people with an underlying condition or who have been cocooning to get out and about, while reminding others to respect social distancing guidelines. Family members of people who are still cocooning will also find the vests very useful in terms of indicating to others that they need to keep their distance in order to decrease the risk of bringing Covid-19 back into the family home. The idea came about through the Covid-19 Community Response Forum in Mahon, just one of the 16 community response groups set up by Cork City Council with the HSE and partners in response to the Covid-19 restrictions.
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