Lifeline Project and DIT

The Lifeline Project and DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) work together through the Students Learning With Communities (SLWC) programme. The DIT Programme for Students Learning With Communities supports staff and students engaging in community-based learning and research (also known as service-learning), and builds links with communities.

Students Learning With Communities involves DIT staff and/or students working with community partners (local groups, not-for-profit organisations, etc) to develop real-life projects. Learning comes alive for the students as they work on these projects with real clients, applying their specialist subject skills, and receiving course credits for their work. The community becomes part of the teaching process and the students’ work furthers the community’s goals. These projects give all participants the opportunity to engage in critical thinking and to develop their social awareness. The Programme for Students Learning With Communities ultimately aims to energise participants to work for social change.

In 2011/12, over 1,300 students across DIT were involved in learning with communities, with over 100 community partners. These projects took place across 46 programmes of study, both undergraduate and postgraduate. Approximately 1 in 3 undergraduate programmes had students involved in collaborative projects with communities.

One example of the multi-disciplinary Lifeline Project research we have done in collaborative with the DIT SLWC programme is a project we did with 4th year architecture in 2010, available for viewing in this desireland post. The projects have been extremely diverse, some are one-off studies and others build over a period of years. A link to a poster on the Lifeline Project research with SLWC work is available on the Lifeline Project page on the DIT SLWC site. Another example was a specific piece of research that looked at the impact of Community gardening on participant health.

Click image below to view a poster of the DIT SLWC Lifeline Projects