TASC Newsletter 26 July 2023

Migrant Community Needs Assessment - Survey Closing Soon

TASC is now recruiting research participants to contribute to a project being run in collaboration with the Irish Cancer Society. We are inviting people from migrant backgrounds to participate in this important research. We want to hear about your perceptions about, and engagement with, the Irish healthcare service. We are particularly interested in the experiences of refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.     

The survey is available in 7 languages - English, Arebic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Ukrainian.  Access the survey here

Closing date: Monday, 31^st July, 5 pm

The People’s Transition for Enniscorthy - Summary

On June 29^th, TASC hosted the first community launch for the People’s Transition project in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. With the backing of AIB, TASC will work with communities across Ireland to support community-led local development for climate justice.

Kieran Harrahill, senior researcher in climate justice with TASC, spoke of the community needs identified following engagement with over 100 community members. The need for sustainable employment and sustainable mobility options was identified as crucial to supporting sustainable development within Enniscorthy.

Róisín Greaney, researcher and community engagement coordinator in climate justice with TASC, hosted a panel discussion which heard from people involved in the initial People’s Transition pilots in Ardara and Phibsborough and community members in Enniscorthy.

TASC would like to thank AIB for supporting the People’s Transition initiative and Greentech HQ for hosting the launch.   Read the full report here

Check out our official People's Transition website - www.peoplestransition.ie

Mary Robinson Climate Conference
5th to 7th of July, Ballina, Co. Mayo

Kieran Harrahill spoke at the Mary Robinson Climate Conference in Ballina last week. He presented an overview of TASC’s People’s Transition initiative which seeks to support community-led local development for climate justice. Kieran also spoke of the communities across Ireland which TASC is working with from 2022 to 2025 alongside developments that have taken place in the pilot locations of the People’s Transition (Phibsborough and Ardara).

Kieran conducted a workshop alongside Deirdre Carolan (TASC Researcher and Irish Research Council PhD Scholarship Recipient) and Mariana Cerca (PhD with UCD and BiOrbic) as part of the conference. The workshop focused on people’s perspectives of an unjust transition, what a just transition to a sustainable future looks like and what are the actions communities and decision-makers can take to secure a just transition.

Welcome to our new TASC Research Team Members

 Maria (Marysia) Pachowicz is TASC's Junior Researcher on Health. They have a B.A. in Psychology & Mathematics and an M.Sc. in Applied Psychology from Trinity College Dublin. They have conducted research on body image and disordered eating among sexual minority women for their undergraduate thesis, and on the experiences of accessing mental healthcare among people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder for their Masters thesis. They are a member of the “Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone” Reference Group of Service Users and Family Members, where they advise the Department of Health on the implementation of mental health policy, ensuring that the voice of the service user is at the centre of all decisions. They also sit on the Health Research Board Expert Group tasked with producing Ireland’s first National Mental Health Research Strategy. Aside from this, they have experience of working in disability services, as well as extensive experience in activism, particularly in relation to LGBTQ+ rights in Ireland and abroad. To contact Maria, please email research@tasc.ie

Major Issues where Mainstream Economists Failed - Part 1 by Paul Sweeney

On top of the avoidable economic Crash in 2008, there were several major economic issues which were not being addressed by policies and so some were and are still unresolved. The following, in my view, are a dozen major issues that mainstream economists failed, or are/were slow to see or adopted incorrect responses to, largely because of their neo-classical orthodoxy:

Envisaging pathways for our rural and coastal communities by Emmie Voet

The one-off workshop called "Envisaging pathways for our rural and coastal communities", held during the Mary Robinson Climate Conference, opened with an introduction to The People's Transition project, led by TASC, and how it aims to create a virtuous cycle of local climate action by working with communities across Ireland to enable place-based, community-led just transitions. Following this, an overview of the benefits of developing the seaweed supply chain and an overview of socially responsible cultivation systems for coastal communities were presented.   Read the full blog here