Be part of the Longford Community Time Machine Project
New Intergenerational Community Archive project launching in County Longford is seeking volunteers to help facilitate the project in their area!
Press Release
21 October 2021
The Community Time Machine initiative is an age-friendly cross-generational community archive project designed to connect young people with their older neighbours through a series of facilitated interviews, art projects and photography. It is a simple and fun way to have a positive impact and strengthen your community connections.
Neighbourhood Network is delighted to be launching this initiative in County Longford this autumn in partnership with The Creative Ireland Programme, Age Friendly Ireland, Longford County Council and the Department of Rural and Community Development.
Community members across County Longford are now invited to come on board as organisers for this exciting project. The role of community organisers is to gather 5-6 young people, aged 12 – 18, to interview senior members of their community over the phone. The interviews give both participants a valuable opportunity to learn from each other and connect with their community.
Each group that takes part will be given €100 towards a charity/group of their choice and a time capsule to store their project in. A professional portrait photographer will visit each of the seniors involved in the project to take their portraits. The seniors will then receive their printed photos and all of the participants will have their work displayed on the national time machine gallery website.
Ciara Perks has been acting as a Community Organiser, connecting young people and seniors who live in her area by facilitating interviews, inspiring them to create artworks and capturing images to show how the community looks now and how it looked in the past. Ciara says:
“This project has been a really eye-opening experience for the young participants and myself, seeing the joy the area has brought to so many people even in the toughest of times.”
On the launch of the Longford Community Time Machine project, Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council Cllr Peggy Nolan said, “I warmly welcome this intergenerational initiative which will gather some of the wonderful stories our older citizens have to tell. We have a very vibrant Older Persons Council and many great Active Age groups around the county who have engaged in exciting intergenerational projects with local schools in the past. This project provides a great opportunity for them to share their stories with the young people who will be working with them. Longford County Council is delighted to be supporting this project and I am looking forward to reading all the great stories when they are collected in the time capsule.”
The Community Time Machine is a great way to get to know more about your community and its history, create something unique and develop community connections. The result is an inspiring collection of insights into the hearts and souls that make up communities all over the county.
If this sounds like a project you would like to see come to life in your area, visit https://timemachine.neighbourhoodnetwork.ie/ to get involved! We would also love to hear from any youth groups, schools or clubs who might be interested in taking part.
About Neighbourhood Network:
Neighbourhood Network came from the team behind Street Feast, a national neighbourhood street party event to celebrate community. Founded in 2009 in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, Neighbourhood Network (trading as Street Feast CLG) inspires neighbours to connect by providing them with the support and tools to organise community-building activities. We are a not-for-profit, community-building organisation. We’re all about building and strengthening neighbourhoods and kick-starting ideas for positive community participation.
www.neighbourhoodnetwork.ie
For more information contact;
CEO of Neighbourhood Network, Sam Bishop samuel@neighbourhoodnetwork.ie
Communications Coordinator of Neighbourhood Network, Áine Lawless aine@neighbourhoodnetwork.ie
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Twitter: @nn_irl
