Community Awareness

Despite the falling rain ,there was great excitment, if not a little anticipation ,amongst 4.3 Transition Year as they gathered in preparation for their Community Awareness placements on Wednesday, November 8th. All heading in different directions to visit the elderly in our Community,it was an emotional, but yet, a historical moment for Sacred Heart as students had not made these visits since October 2019/ March 2020.

We take this opportunity to thank the Residents and Staff of Bushmount Nursing Home , Care Choice Nursing Home, Cope Work Shop, Clonakilty Day Care Center and Clonakilty Community Hospital

Reflections on Community Awareness…Shona Hurley Transition Year Student 2019/2020

This Community Awareness Programme was introduced into our school , over thirty years ago. This programme was introduced to link the school with the local Community ,through our Transition Year Religious Education Programme .Through this programme it is hoped that we, the Transition Year students ,would live the message of the Gospel in an active ,and practical way, and that our awareness of those varied members of our community-of those “special people”- would be increased. We take inspiration from the following words from St. Johns Gospel:

“OUR LOVE IS NOT TO BE MERE WORDS OR MERE TALK BUT SOMETHING REAL AND ACTIVE”

I looked forward to heading off from school every Thursday afternoon to see the residents from a local  nursing home. I think the reason I liked visiting the nursing home so much was because  the residents were so excited to see us come in . We would barely have our coats off when  one of these beautiful people was calling us for a chat. 

They were so interested in what we shared with them, from telling them where we were  from to what our favourite subject in school was. They also told us plenty about themselves, such as telling us about their families, their school days and what songs they enjoyed listening to. I loved to listen to them talk about their past and their hobbies, as they reminded me of my own grandparents. 

It was obvious to me how much the Residents really enjoyed our company .It was obvious because they were smiling all the time. They really enjoyed telling us stories from their lives ,and their experiences as teenagers. For us it was interesting to see how very different our lives are to theirs.They liked to sit and listen to us talk about random things, even if we thought what we were saying was boring.They enjoyed ous stories as much as we enjoyed theirs as was evident from the many questions they asked us.