Action-packed semester from Welfare

By Ciara Corcoran

Hi everyone, Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great Christmas break and are ready to get involved in the packed semester we have planned for you!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been busy finishing developing a finance and grant guide, preparing to help you all next semester and planning our awareness campaign weeks for the coming semester. This semester we have so much going on including ‘Love your body week’ in Week 5, Road Safety Week in Week 8 and Mental Health Week in Week 10. Make sure to get involved and keep an eye out for everything that’s happening- it’s going to be fun!

This semester my number 1 aim is to have a successful Charity Week. Last year we raised over €30,000 and I know we can do better this year. Our 4 charities were selected last semester and they’re all hugely deserving of as much money as we can raise. The charities for this year are:

• Corbett Suicide Prevention Patrol
• BUMBLEance
• St. Vincent de Paul Drop-in Centre Limerick
• Blood Bike Groups of Ireland

We’ve some really exciting events in the pipeline for Charity Week and we’ll be looking for lots of volunteers throughout Week 6.

I also hope to get a full house at the suicide awareness and prevention training in week 10 and successfully pull off some projects that are in the planning stages in the moment- watch this space! Most of all I hope to meet more of you and help as many of you as I can by the end of the year.

Wolf wristbands were a huge success last semester and we have more to offer. All money raised from these bands will go towards suicide awareness and intervention training in week 10 so all of your donations would be hugely appreciated. You can get them behind SU reception, in the Welfare Office, from volunteers around campus and through some of your clubs and societies.

The Welfare Team has been strong and I hope that will continue next semester. We’ve had some really good campaigns and this is just going to get better this semester. The team will be running their own campaign in week 3 so be sure to keep an eye out! If you’re interested in getting involved with the welfare team or have any ideas of issues we can tackle around campus just email suwelfare@ul.ie.

If you or someone you know is still looking for single semester accommodation you can email me or rose.merrigan@ul.ie for the mythical ‘off-campus housing list’. Also make sure to add yourself to Facebook group ‘Single semester housing 15/16’ where you can link up with other students to fill a room for someone who’s leaving.

The Aldi bus was a huge success last semester and will continue this semester. Huge shout out to Evan and Eamon who looked after the bus for me last semester- thanks lads! The bus is free and will go from each of the on campus villages every Monday at 5pm and 7pm. To book your place email aldibusul@gmail.com before 2pm each Monday with your name, student ID number, time and place you’d like to take the bus and contact phone number.

In September, to mark World Suicide Prevention week, a series of events were held in conjunction with the Cycle Against Suicide. We’re delighted to let you all know that €740 was raised through these events so well done to you all!

Delighted to have you all back,

Ciara