Case studies
Grosvenor Grammar School students have policy makers falling over themselves to assist with their project.
Grosvenor Grammar School has been involved with the Civic-Link project for a number of years and are partnered with St Brigid's Secondary School, Killarney and with Wood River High School, Idaho. This year's Civic-Link group from Grosvenor, who are using a Human Rights approach to examining and solving community problems, have identified the lack of road safety around the school as the issue they would like to see solved. They feel the problem relates to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 3: 'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.'
Why this problem?
The 12 year 13's involved chose this Human Rights problem as it affects not only students but local residents, including the very young and elderly and general road users. As part of their research into the existence of the problem, the students have been able to use recent local newspaper reports of accidents, which have involved pedestrian injuries. They also have first hand accounts from fellow students and residents who have been knocked down. The lack of road safety, which is caused by the volume and speed of traffic, also impacts on other aspects of the lives of those involved: education, general well-being and confidence to travel.
What solution?
As part of their research, the students have contacted a range of policy makers, advocating for the improvement of the traffic situation in their area and raising awareness of the problem. So far, they have received letters of support from Peter Robinson First Minister, the DRD- who are responsible for the roads and Principals of other local schools, offering support for the project.
As a result of their research and examining other policies in Scotland and England, the students have decided the best solution would be the implementation of a 20 mile an hour zone around the school. They have reports and first hand accounts from communities using this solution and the results indicate that it works. They have considered other solutions, like speed bumps. However, speed bumps already exist in the area and have not solved the problem. Due to the residential nature of the streets surrounding the school, it would be difficult to implement traffic lights or pedestrian crossings.
Considering the wide-spread support from policy makers for their project so far, the GGS should have great success in implementing their solution.
Our Human Rights problem: Right to adequate rest and leisure
Ballycastle is a town close to the north coast of Northern Ireland. It is a rural town, with a large catchment area, meaning that pupils have to travel 10-15 miles along small country roads to get to school. Ballycastle High School has 380 pupils from age 11 to 18.
For the past 2 years, Ballycastle High School’s Civic-Link groups have been using Human Rights as a way of identifying and solving problems in the community. This year’s Civic-Link group have identified a problem that we believe infringes on our right to rest and leisure. Our school offers a wide range of extra-curricular activities but many pupils find it difficult to access these activities. The main problem is the bus service. There are only a few buses available to pupils and these come at different times that don’t correspond with the end of our after school activities. This means pupils have to either leave after school clubs early, or spend time down in the town, waiting for a late bus. This reality in particular causes concerns for parents as it is not the safest option for their children. Winter time, with its dark nights and cold conditions, adds to the concern for general safety.
This situation results in pupils who live far from school not having the same access to school run leisure facilities. We feel strongly that this affects those pupil’s Human Rights and if a dedicated after school bus service was offered, everyone would have equal access facilities and everyone would be able to avail of the after school clubs they most enjoy. Our proposal would be that the bus services areas with the more remote school catchment areas and where a lot of pupils, who would like to stay after school, live. The bus would run on days of greatest need (ie, when the majority of pupils who stay need transport home). This proposal would mean that pupils, staff and parents would all benefit.
By the Ballycastle HS Civic-Link group
1st exchange: Carlow Regional Youth Service and Banbridge High School
written by the Carlow young people
Our 1st exchange was from the 24th -26th November 2008 and took place in Carlow. The Banbridge students along with their teacher and Banbridge youth centre youth worker were greeted by five members of the Carlow group and were brought to The Vault (Carlow Regional Youth Service) to meet the rest of the Carlow students. The Vault is a new project, funded by the Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund and the V.E.C. and run by Carlow Regional Youth Services (CRYS) and provides young people with a space to meet and work.
Upon arrival in The Vault, the Banbridge group was extended a warm welcome by the Carlow young people and their leaders from the Carlow School Completion Programme and Carlow Regional Youth Service.
As well as lots of fun activities, the groups completed 5 workshops on their 1st exchange, which were deisgned to help the 2 groups get to know each other, share information and make decisions about which problem to choose.
What an exchange involves
For the purpose of the two groups getting to know each other and to get everyone mixing from the start, we played some icebreaker games. Once we had begun to make friendships, we then made a group contract and talked about our hopes and fears. Some of our hopes were to become friends and that by taking part in this project, we will make a difference.
One of the activities in the next workshop was where both groups shared our group and community profiles, which was very interesting as it showed us how many things we had in common. The reason for sharing these is so we get a better insight into our partners and to explore what we and our communities have in common. This led onto sharing information about our community problems.
We discovered that both communities have similar problems revolving around underage drinking and violence. Carlow students will be looking at
violence with underage drinking as a cause and Banbridge students will be looking at underage drinking and how it can cause violence.
As we mentioned above, we also had time just to have fun and get to know our partners.
During the exchange we spent time relaxing and making friendships in the new "Vault" Project. We had the opportunity to take part in a sports session on the Astro Turf pitch in the Institute of Technology, Carlow where we all learnt the basics of Lacrosse and played Tag Rugby.
We visited Carlow County Council where Cllr Denis Foley, Cathaoirleach, greeted us and we spent time in Carlow Vocational School where Mr Joe Rattigan, Deputy Principal, and Sinead O’ Keeffe, School Completion Co-ordinator, welcomed them
On the same day the groups returned to the Vault for some team building activities. Using innovative methods, the groups bridged the gap between Carlow and Banbridge.
We completed the 5 Civic-Link workshops and had time for other activities as well, namely playing Lacrosse and Tag Rugby and visiting Carlow County Council. This visit gave the young people a chance to meet with local politicians and the opportunity to explore how they can take action at public policy level.
One of the main tasks of this 1st exchange is to decide on a problem that we would like to solve. To be able to decide this, we first had to talk about our group and communities. This helped to give us an understanding of each other and where we live.
Once we had exchanged this information, we then began talking about our community problems. These were classified into 3 groups: problems just in Banbridge/Carlow and then problems experienced by both communities. We chose to focus on these and choose a common problem from the following list:
• Underage drinking
• Teenage violence
• Boy racers
We felt choosing a common problem would give us opportunities to communicate more and help each other to solve our common problem. After a discussion where we clearly identified what the problem actually was and how it was affecting our communities, we agreed that Banbridge would focus on underage drinking and how it causes violence and Carlow would explore violence caused by underage drinking.
The exchange was a great success and we are all looking forward to visiting the Banbridge group in the New Year.
Banbridge High School students make DVD to highlight the dangers of underage drinking
Last year the Civic Link Group at Banbridge High School working with Carlow Vocational School decided to research the effects of underage drinking which causes so much conflict in our community. They discovered that the problem was widespread and that many young people believed that ‘getting blocked’ is just a bit of craic and would not do them any harm.
At their Community Panel Hearing in May 2009 they presented their Action Plan to chosen policy makers. They had researched the possibility of producing a DVD to warn young people about the dangers of underage drinking but realised that such a production would be too costly. Mr Ian Russell, Principal of Banbridge High School at that time, encouraged the group to carry out their Action Plan and the idea was seconded by all policy makers present.
Banbridge Policing Partnership provided the necessary funding, support and guidance and the DVD was produced by the Civic Link group at Banbridge High School. The DVD shows young people some of the dangers that drinking alcohol poses to their well-being, health, safety and future life. The group produced a script and interviewed doctors, the PSNI, youth workers and community safety wardens about their perceptions of the problems caused by underage drinking.
A premiere of the DVD ‘Blocked – So What’ was held at Banbridge High School on 8th December 2009.
The young people involved with the making of the DVD have set high standards and shown what can be achieved through Civic Link.
