Pathways: Building Community Resilience to Climate Change

A creative project aiming to increase community involvement in addressing rising sea levels and coordinating responses to flooding.

The Creative Climate Action Fund is an initiative from Creative Ireland Programme, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media in collaboration with the Department of the Taoiseach.

The Creative Climate Action ‘Spark’ grants are funding 24 projects that pilot new ideas for public engagement at a local, community level. These projects will be completed by the end of 2024.

Youghal Blue and Green Community Networks project ‘Pathways’ is one of the 24 projects chosen.

Councillor Mary Linehan-Foley officially launched this exciting project in Cumann naDaoine last December at the Network’s Christmas event at which Network members, artists and collaborators came together.

Pathways: Building Community Resilience to Climate Change aims to engage our community through a series of walk shops & arts workshops as we explore our community’s concerns about rising sea levels, coastal erosion and flooding.

 Our three artists Veronica Santorum, Daniel Clancy and Jackie Nevin will facilitate the walk shops and workshops to co-create an immersive audio-visual sandbag installation using natural textiles – this will be exhibited in September 2024 in the Mall Arts Centre, Youghal. The project will leave a tangible legacy in the form of a copper artwork mounted on the Cumann na Daoine building which references the ongoing floods and  the participation of local people: the design of this artwork will be informed by the community through workshops. 

We invite everyone in the area to join us and collaborate in our vox-pops, walk, talk & workshops. Together, let’s explore the community’s perspectives on the effects of rising sea levels and flooding in Youghal. Your support is crucial, and we value the input of every community member as we journey on our  Pathways whilst building resilience to climate change.

The First Walkshop

The first walk-shop took place on Sunday November 12th, 2023

Network members enjoyed a 2-hour interactive experience, facilitated by sound artist Daniel Clancy and eco-artist Veronica Santorum with a range of activities at each pre-planned stop along the route structured to provoke thought and conversation about flooding. 

Local resident of South Abbey, Elia Kirwin, shared her stories of the many times her home flooded. This sparked a lively conversation about how communities can respond to, and prepare for, future flooding events.

Further discussions took place afterwards in the Community Café at Cumann na Daoine where we enjoyed soup, sandwiches and cakes.

The attendance and feedback were extremely positive and though flooding is a serious topic the facilitators managed to keep all focused using playful yet sensitive methods.

Follow us here and our social media pages as we journey these Pathways together.