Projects ranging from walking tours of Dublin to provision of affordable homes and traffic management in the city were among the winners in The Irish TimesLiving Dublin Awards announced this week.
The awards, which are for groups and individuals working to improve the quality of life in Dublin city and county, are run by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and Dublin City Council. The five category winners were:
Business in the Community and overall winner - Vipre Ltd
This project, promoting take-up of more sustainable modes of transport, was also declared the overall winner of The Irish TimesLiving Dublin Awards.
Travelways is a traffic reduction initiative, which was implemented by Vipre, between the Mater hospital and Temple Street Children's Hospital. By providing alternative travel services and an information service to make people aware of their travel options, Vipre intends to reduce the use of single-occupant cars accessing the sites by 23 per cent. As of September 2006, they had already achieved a 16 per cent reduction in car use, one year ahead of target.
Primary Education - Rutland Street National School, Dublin 1, 'Quality of Life in Dublin's North Inner City to Others'
The "Quality of Life in Dublin's North Inner City to Others" exchange programme between Rutland National School and a 22-pupil school in Sligo was started by teacher Áine Caffrey, who wanted to instil in her pupils a sense of pride in their community. The programme started with the children writing letters to each other about themselves, the weather, class trips and so on, and culminated with both schools paying each other a visit.
Dublin City Neighbourhoods - Arbour Hill Prison
Arbour Hill Prison won this award for the environmental initiatives by staff management and prisoners in the area of waste management. This category was sponsored by Dublin City Council in conjunction with the Tidy Towns initiative.
Post-Primary Education - Winner and Overall Education Winner - Tallaght Travellers CDP Club 2000 Homework Club
This after-school programme that encourages young Travellers to stay in education was also declared the overall winner of the education category. The homework club was set up by Tallaght Travellers CDP to redress the high rate of early school-leaving among the Traveller community. Traveller parents are actively involved in running the club and a qualified secondary teacher is on hand to provide the necessary educational support and to help the students realise their potential in Junior and Leaving Cert exams. Over 20 young Travellers in the club have sat the Junior Cert and two more have sat the Leaving Cert. This year 22 Travellers are part of Club 2000, four will sit their Junior Cert and five will sit their Leaving Cert.
Culture and Tourism - Pat Liddy's Walking Tours of Dublin
Pat Liddy's Walking Tours take participants around designated heritage, historical and hidden areas of Dublin. The company was set up to put Dublin on the map as a city for walkers, to provide a wider range of walking tours and to expand the appeal of the city by emphasising attractions that could only be revealed on a walking tour.
Community Development - Tógáil Developments Ltd.
Tógáil Developments was set up by a group of people living and working in Ballymun to provide affordable housing to people in the greater Dublin area.
By the end of 2006, the company had provided 233 units of housing and one community facility.
Tógáil works in partnership with local communities and local authorities to facilitate them to bridge an affordable housing deficit. To date, Tógáil has housed 195 families in three- and four-bedroomed homes that have cost them up to 60 per cent less than the current market value of such houses.
Tógáil was set up by Fiona Cormican and Winnie Ryan, both of whom have a long history of working in the voluntary sector in Dublin.