Until recently, Jessica Gill, a transition-year student in St Paul’s Secondary School in Greenhills, Dublin, had never known anyone with an intellectual disability.
Now, after meeting up with Julie Malone, an adult with an intellectual disability, one day a week over five weeks, she feels “more open to talking to and helping people with intellectual disabilities”.
Gill is one of a group of students from St Paul’s who were buddied with an adult with an intellectual disability as part of a Creative TY Connections programme in Dublin city centre
“I learned how to use WhatsApp and FaceTime and how to take selfies,” says Malone, who met us in St Paul’s during a catch-up after the programme had ended.
Cathy Nichol from Tallaght was another adult participant in the programme. “I learned how to use my phone to text friends and family,” she says. “I got to meet different people. It was great fun.”
Ella Connaughton, who was Nichol’s buddy, says “I was nervous at first as I didn’t know what to expect but it taught me a lot of about understanding people more and that we are all kind of different in different ways”.
Selina Prah was another transition year buddy from St Paul’s. “I broadened my understanding of IT and how I could teach people with different abilities,” she says. “I didn’t know that I could have such patience and care to explain things in detail.”
By participating in the programme, Prah says she recognised her personal leadership skills. “I felt I was able to help people instead of people helping me.”
Isha Nair, another transition-year buddy from St Paul’s says she has an uncle with a mild intellectual disability and that it upsets her to see him treated indifferently.
“People can become capable if you teach them how,” she says. “The world is becoming more technologically advanced and it’s better that everyone can use different modes of technology.”
Linda Smyth is a support staff worker from Stewarts Care in Palmerstown, a daytime hub for adults with disabilities.
“I’ve seen people walk taller, beam with pride to be treated on an equal footing,” she says. “These transition-year students could be the employers of the future and it’s good for them to see that ability comes in all shapes and sizes; that everyone has worth and that our differences can unite us.
Miriam Spollen developed the Creative TY Connections programme as part of her vision for inclusive community-based creative learning opportunities for adults with disabilities.
“This programme counters the isolation and disconnection adults with disabilities face when they leave secondary school,” says Spollen.
She says the HSE New Directions policy, which was introduced in 2012, changed the way disability services were run, bringing much more focus on adults with disabilities partaking in mainstream community activities.
“They were encouraged to access programmes in community education programmes at libraries or in education training board centres that they used to do on-site in disability day services.
“But many of these programmes are not accessible to the level they are at,” says Spollen. “There is no structure in community education programmes which support people with intellectual disability.”
This realisation spurred her to design programmes for community settings that would be inclusive for adults with disabilities, offering them the one-to-one support they need.
The Creative TY Connections programme started in two schools in 2022. Two years later, Spollen was running eight programmes across four Dublin schools – Loreto Beaufort in Rathfarnham, St Paul’s Secondary School in Greenhills, the King’s Hospital School in Palmerstown and Templeogue College. Students from these schools were paired up with adults attending day centres in disability service organisations.
Our mission is to assist people with disabilities to overcome barriers, encountered every day
Ann Moriarty, who leads the groups in the IT skills module of Creative TY Connections, says the community training programmes not only offer opportunities for continuous learning but that they build self-esteem, confidence and improve emotional wellbeing among the participants. “Our training programmes are designed to encourage independent contributors to society,” she says.
There are four modules, which focus on: everyday IT, money management, sustainability and upskilling for employment.
The long-term aim for Spollen is to develop an inclusive community arts centre in Rathgar, where the Connections Arts Centre already leases space. There she hopes to expand on the inclusive supported arts and lifestyle classes already running so that artists with disabilities can reach their creative potential.
“I struggled with dyslexia and undiagnosed ADHD in secondary school myself and I was very lucky to go to art college where I could learn through creativity,” she says. She studied textiles and fashion at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.
“Our mission is to assist people with disabilities to overcome barriers, encountered every day, that lead to them being devalued and excluded from their communities.”
Spollen also hopes to scale up the transition-year programme by offering support to disability service providers, community educators and schools. Funding for her not-for-profit social enterprise comes from paid-for accessibility training and consultancy services as well as grants and corporate partnerships.
“The programme for government commits to supporting adults with disabilities by expanding lifelong learning opportunities and fostering inclusion and equality, and this programme delivers on these promises, she says.
More specifically, she believes the programme builds confidence and a sense of belonging. “It supports the development of practical skills and challenges misconceptions by fostering appreciation and respect for others,” she says.
She also believes that the buddy system – where each transition-year student is paired with an adult with a disability – empowers all participants giving the students a sense that they can make a difference.
Darragh Patton, transition-year co-ordinator at St Paul’s Secondary School in Greenhills, Dublin, says the new programme is very community-focused. “Students are encouraged to get out into the community to do various things, and this programme helped the girls see people with disabilities in their communities in a whole other way.”
Patton says participation in the programme also helped break down barriers within the school between students in the school’s autism units and in other classrooms.
“We have our autism units in the middle of the school, next to the cafeteria, not hidden down at the end of a corridor. So, the girls who did the Creative TY Connections programme became more relaxed about helping out with projects in the autism unit,” he says.
