Welfare update

By Ciara Corcoran

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a great Easter break and are ready for the remainder of the semester! The next few weeks are going to be very exciting with a big Mental Health Week planned and the referendum for a new student centre on April 13^th.

Charity Week has been a huge chunk of my work over the last few weeks. Thanks to all the volunteers, all those who took part in the activities and all of you who donated. The raft race will be happening in Week 9 so get your friends together to potentially win yourselves a trip to Amsterdam for two nights! All you need is a team of four, a sign-up sheet from the Union, a homemade raft and raise €200 per team.

Walk and Talk is a project I’ve been working on with Mary I and LIT for the past few months. This is a 5km evening walk for Pieta House bringing all the students of Limerick together to promote talking and looking after our mental health. Students go through many of the same issues, worries and experiences and we see this as a chance for us all to come together and address the same issues together. Check out Facebook on how to enter and help raise much needed funds for such a worthwhile service.

Week 8 was a super week with Pay it Forward and Road Safety Week. Pay it Forward involved doing kind acts and getting people to pass it on. You guys nominated some staff members who you thought were particularly kind to you in the past and we delivered cookies to them! Road Safety Week was great with the roll over car in the Plaza on Tuesday and loads of freebies throughout the week.

Mental Health week is in Week 10, with lots of stuff happening across campus. We’ll be hosting a 24-hour Cycle Against Suicide on Thursday of Week 10 in the courtyard. The cycle this year falls during the exam period so instead we’re bringing the cycle here – sort of! If anyone wants to get involved in any part of the week come along to the Welfare Team meeting on Wednesday at 6pm in the SU or email suwelfare@ul.ie. We’re also hosting a Safe Talk workshop, run by the HSE which is booked out with over 40 people interested. It’s great to see you all interested in looking after your mental health and that of others. We hope to have another training workshop before the end of the year which will be announced on Facebook and in one of Colin’s weekly emails.

The Student Assistance Fund deadline has been extended to April 8^th. If you haven’t applied already you can find the application form online by googling ‘Students Assistance Fund UL’ or on the SAA website.

Finally, congratulations to our incoming Sabbat Team; Sarah, Caolan and Donal. Looking forward to a fun handover week with you. Well done to all of the candidates, you all ran fantastic campaigns and should be very proud of yourselves and your campaign teams.