Stories about Climate Change from members of Cumann na Daoine's Spring Chickens Older Adults Club & Youghal Active Retirement Association

Cummann na Daoine is a community resource centre in Youghal and we held an event named 'Weathering the Changes' for members of Cumann naDaoine's (CnD) Spring Chickens Older Adults Social Club in collaboration with Youghal Active Retirement Association (YARA).

The event, which was themed to the County Council's Climate Change project, was attended by 15 people, and helped make links between Spring Chickens, YARA, the Youghal Blue & Green Community Network and CnD Community Garden Club, who provided access to the venue for the workshop in the Millenium Park, Youghal.

The session lasted for 2 hours: there were three 'note takers' who encouraged participants to tell their stories, using the prompts supplied by the Council project along with some questions relating specifically to Youghal. A member of YARA made recordings, of both snippets of conversation and full stories.

After the event, notes were compiled and recordings transcribed with the local radio station CRY104fm providing assistance to the community group in downloading the recordings and in editing.

The ‘Weathering the Changes’ event also served to start up a broader Cumann na Daoine project for older people, which incorporates storytelling and crafts, with an intergenerational theme added through a further collaboration with Foroige youth service.

Participants in this project enjoyed the experience and are keen to participate in future sessions. Future sessions and activities will enable wider participation from our memberships (Spring Chickens with 60 members, YARA with over 100). The Youghal Blue & Green Network, an environmental group led by CnD and formed of individuals and organisational representatives, will also re-connect with this group to develop environmental awareness and share older people's learning in a number of environmental actions.

'Weathering the Changes' was funded by Creative Ireland as part of the larger In Our Element project.

Cummann Na Daoine