By John Madden
In recent days, we were made aware of three great opportunities for any Travellers who might be interested in turning their hand to radio. Two community led organisations, Athlone Community Radio (Westmeath), Wired FM (Limerick) and Radio Corca Baiscin (Kilkee, Co. Clare) are looking for interested people to be trained in making and presenting radio programmes.
The aim of this drive is to offer persons fro the Traveller Community access to a free QQI Level 3 accredited training course on how to create a radio show that will explore social issues, news and views, and beyond. So, if you have ever thought you’d have the interest in doing something like this and maybe be a strong voice within the community why not consider taking up this challenge.
There may very well be moreopportunities like this on the horizon across the country with other local/community radio stations, and if we hear of any more opportunities of this nature we will be sure to keep you informed.
In an effort to find out a little bit more, we caught up with station manager of Athlone Community Radio, Mary Lennon, for a little bit more information on this exciting initiative.
The title of the project is: ‘Supporting the Voices of Marginalised Groups.’ The training programme will include active civic engagement, with participants encouraged to connect with local politicians, local citizens and relevant agencies while
making their programme.
We aim to ensuring that all participants are motivated to complete the course and to give voice to their concerns and aspirations.
The participants will produce a one hour long programme in which they collaborate and editorialise the content.
8 Community Radio stations are delivering this training and each stations programme will be broadcast on these eight stations and a compilation of these assembled programmes will be broadcast across the entire Craol national network with a weekly reach of 307000 listeners.
There will be a national event in Dublin to celebrate the conclusion of the series with the participants and print and other broadcast media invited. This training is FETAC/QQI certified at Level 3 and will consist of 30 hours course work. All of the work will be complete in this time frame and we are planning on starting this course in the next couple of weeks with a completion date of November 3rd whereby the course work will be sent for external examination and then for certification.
We would welcome participants from your organisation/group and you can contact Deirdre Hunt at marketing@athlonecommunityradio.ie or Mary Lennon at manager@athlonecommunityradio.ie or phone 0906490722 for further information.
This project is being funded by The community Foundation of Ireland in conjunction with CRAOL (The Community Radio Forum of Ireland).
If you are interested in the Clare opportunity, please contact Sadhbh Smyth from Radio Corca Baiscin on 0659083022, or altenatively sadhbh@rcb.ie .
If the Limerick opportunity suits you, then, expressions of interest can be made
via manager@wiredfm.ie or by calling 087 169 6999.
This looks to be a great initiative, and who knows, it could pave the way to greater things.
Both organisations will be happy to discuss more details with you if you are interested
