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Ireland’s first ever Climate Justice Charter is here!

Ireland’s first ever Climate Justice Charter is here!

Sign Ireland's First Climate Justice Charter
The young people of the Future Generations Project have created Ireland’s first-ever Climate Justice Charter. This is a major landmark in Ireland’s efforts to embed Climate Justice principles in organisations across the country.
But what is a ‘Charter’?
There are many definitions of the word ‘charter’ but in this case, it refers to a set of principles and guidelines that organisations agree to commit to.
The Agricultural and Rural Affairs Policy Officer from Macra na Feirme, Gillian Richardson said ‘we love that the charter is accessible for every organisation and every group of young people. From young farmers making a living to young people making change, there is something in there for everyone.’
The principles of the charter are written in a way that compliments the work that most organisations are currently doing. It seeks to deepen the whole-organisation approach to Climate Justice without creating more workload. Instead, the charter provides simple guidelines that can be referred to, to ensure a Climate Justice approach is being achieved.
Lee Cummins, Project Leader from Sphere 17 Regional Youth Service, stated that ‘the charter is beneficial for all organisations as it acts as a set of good practice guidelines that allows Sphere 17 to begin to truly embed Climate Justice at all levels – from our board of directors to the young people we work with.’
The Climate Justice movement will require a strong collaborative approach, and so the Future Generations project is calling upon all organisations to become signatories and join the Climate Justice Charter Community.
Organisations should join if they wish to recognise climate change as a crucial issue for young people and demonstrate their commitment to take action alongside the young people they work with. Furthermore, organisations that join the ever-growing Climate Justice community will benefit from Climate Justice training and events led by the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) and the Future
Generations Project that will support whole-organisations; board members, staff, youth workers, volunteers, and young people.
TJ Hourihan, the Advocacy & Youth Information Service Coordinator at YMCA Ireland, commented that their organisation ‘love the Climate Justice Charter because its creation of it was entirely youth-led. It captures exactly what the young people wanted the charter to say and the capacity to convince others how the world should be.’
To learn more or join the Climate Justice Charter Community, visit
https://www.youth.ie/climatejusticecharter/. If you have any questions about the charter or how you can implement it within your organisation, contact Eimear Manning from NYCI at eimear@nyci.ie.

ISSU New Logo launch!

We are changing up our look here in the ISSU.

We have created a restored version of a time-honoured logo, refurbished for today's world and it needs both present and future.
After five demanding months of research, designing, feedback analysis and decision making to get to where we are today, we are honoured to say that this version of the logo was successfully passed by the Coiste Gnó on 24/10/2021.

See ISSU Communications Officer Statement below.


ISSU COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER STATEMENT

"When I first started working on the logo redesign back in July 2021 and spent the first month creating a vectorised version of our logo. Formulating colours, shapes, typography and creating a more clear overall look to our logo.

The first draft to change the logo was proposed at the Coiste Gnó meeting on 07/08/2021 by myself, Quinton Kelly. Following a presentation, made to the Coiste Gnó and Secretariat, the Coiste Gnó voted and agreed on some of the minor adjustments to the current logo be introduced in the near future. This could include; vectorisation, change of green colour tone in the current logo and looking at further expansion of research and analysis.

The next month was spent investigating different approaches to the current logo and making slight adjustments and modifications based on feedback and graphic studies.
The possibility of changing the look of the crest was then brought into play and heavy groups of hours upon hours went into finding out information on the psychology of colour, symbolism, emotions of colour, understanding, contrast, balance, harmony and interaction of colour. A narrowed down, 2 categories and 5 variations of different logos came to light from this extensive research. In this time, a total of 57 logos were created from scratch based on all information gathered.

On 09/10/2021 a presentation of these 57 logos was broken into 2 categories and 5 variations were made to the Coiste Gnó. After many debates, discussions, constructive criticism and comments were made, the individual identities making up these logos were further narrowed down and voted on. Two proposals were voted on that day. 1. A vectorised version of the current logo was approved with minor adjustments in size and colour. 2. The agreement that a second proposed logo was more favourable and the Coiste Gnó recommend some further adjustments and readjustments made before a final vote was taken.

After carefully evaluating the evaluation from the Coiste Gnó meeting on 09/10/2021.
I went back and have spent 2 weeks looking at the project from a new viewpoint.
This proposed logo will be in place for at least the next 5 years and I feel it is time to take the elements that we love from the current logo and combine that with the age that we have grown into and create a restored version of a time-honoured logo, refurbished for today's world and it needs both present and future.

On 24/10/2021 a final vote took place, the revised logo including the adjustments and modifications based on hours of extensive research and feedback. This logo was proposed to the Coiste Gnó and was voted on as in line with the ISSU Constitution. I am honoured to say that this version of the logo was successfully passed by the Coiste Gnó on 24/10/2021.

After spending almost 5 months looking at different versions of this logo, this new logo we will introduce and welcome into the ISSU family is one I can look back on and say with pride that "I made that". I can't bear to look in contrast to how far we've come and the difference from the logo back in July 2021. I understand that a lot of you are only used to seeing the old logo and are comparing it to the old logo and maybe notice a drastic change and don't know how to feel, well I can assure you as your Communications Officer that this is the conclusion to hours and months of committed time in research, analysis and consultation into making the perfect rebranded logo to transition it a world we live in.

Many thanks to you all for all your feedback, criticism, comments and ideas to make this a reality." - Quinton Kelly (ISSU Communications Officer)

Official logo of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union CLG 2021

English - #LC2017 - Maeve Richardson

 Maeve Richardson - St. Annes Secondary School Tipperary TownYou know in a horror film when the character is approaching an empty corridor? And they shine their torch up onto the ceiling and the monster is suddenly there? Well, yeah that's how the approach to the morning of English paper 1 felt.

So, I saw the first comprehension and jumped right into it. Didn't even look at the others. (Rationality, exams and I are a non-existent combination) so I did the 'world of poetry' question A in about 30 mins. I didn't find this hard really, the visual elements to the images stood out quite clearly!Swiftly moved onto my question B from text 2. I wrote an opinion piece on news in the online world and the reliability of sources which I took as a green light to talk about 'fake news' and Trump. (Which weirdly enough I sorta predicted in my Vlog yesterday) So shoutout to the State Exams Commission for keeping it topical as ever.Finally for composing, which this year I believe had something for everyone. I did question 3 which was writing a speech about how to support democracy at the World Youth Conference and if you're anyway political like me, was a dream question. I sort of went into the history of democracy; its origins, its place in society today. While explaining how education is the best way to support it. (Guess being in ISSU has shown its benefits huh?)Overall it was a lovely paper and I'll be flat out studying for paper 2. So join in #prayingforplath and check in tomorrow for more blogs from us!#LC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17

 

Win free pizza!...ISSU Competition

The ISSU Scholar Card team are proud to present this month's competition. If you love eating out, but hate the cost of going out (hey, it’s a recession!), then we’ve got great news for you. We’ve teamed up with Milano to offer you the chance to win one of two €50 vouchers for Tesco so you can buy all your favourite goodies for the Perfect Night In.