What to do for the National Commmunity Weekend “The Big Hello” in Ireland
Ireland will celebrate National Community Weekend on this year’s May bank holiday weekend. Take the chance to open up your existing community groups to new members, organise a special event or just get your neighbours together.
The Big Hello provide packs, posters and there are also some funding opportunities that you can find out about on your County Council website.
Here are ideas you can register to start on ChangeX and join “The Big Hello”:
Street Feast
Street Feast celebrates 10 years of bringing communities together this year and it’s happening a few weeks earlier than usual to coincide with The Big Hello. Nearly 500 people have already registered their Feasts for this year. Will you join in?
Keep it small, keep it simple is the Street Feast advice.
Playful Street
A Playful Street is a low cost and easy way to create play spaces by temporarily closing streets to traffic, so children and neighbours can play outside. For a couple of hours on the weekend, after school or for The Big Hello your street becomes a safer place to play – to ride bikes, draw with chalk, or kick a ball around.
The team behind Playful Streets has been transforming streets around Dublin in to play spaces for quite some time and they’ve pulled together everything they’ve learned so children and neighbours can play together outside – just like you used to when you were young 😀
Register to start Playful Street
Walks and Talks
Or, organise a community walk in your local area. Find someone who knows the area and its habitat well to guide your group on a local excursion: A simple and fun way to discover more about your local heritage and get to know your community!
Poetry in the Park
Poetry in the Park is a poetry group that holds monthly meetings in a local park. It is a free community gathering that invites all those interested in poetry to come along and simply listen to poetry recitals or share a poem or story.
Register to do host a Poetry in the Park
Let us know what else are you planning for The Big Hello. We’d love to hear how you’ll bring people in your community together over the weekend. [email protected]