15 Meath organisations receive Clonee Facebook tech grants

Facebook's Clonee Data Centre today awarded tech grants worth over €150,000 to fifteen organisations in Meath, including schools and other nonprofits, as part of its inaugural Community Action Grants programme, which aims to put the power of technology to good use for the community. 

Funding was granted to a range of community organisations and schools to support their work connecting people both on and off line and improving STEM education. Grants will be provided for a host of projects including major ICT upgrades in the classrooms of Meath schools, digital access and integration projects for teens in direct provision, robotics and digital equipment for community groups including Coder Dojo, the Enfield Fairy Trail and the Dunboyne Community Centre. 

Speaking at the award ceremony, which took place at Facebook's Clonee Data Centre, Councillor Maria Murphy, Cathaoirleach Ratoath Council commented; "I welcome the scheme and that many local groups will benefit from the grants. I look forward to working with Facebook in the area."

Mark Hunter, Clonee Data Centre Site Manager, Facebook, said, “We are committed to building strong partnerships within the community, and we embrace the opportunity to have a positive local impact. We are excited to be in Clonee and humbled by the work that our Community Action Grant recipients do to make our community a better place and help Meath thrive. This will be an annual programme, and the call for 2020 grants will open later this year.”

The 2019 Facebook Community Action Grant recipients are; 

Gaelscoil na Ríthe, Dunshaughlin 
This grant will provide extensive ICT upgrades for this Meath primary school. The package includes much needed interactive whiteboards for three of the classrooms, 20 laptops for students and a suite of Microbits, Beebots and other robotic kits to introduce coding and robotics to children at every age and stage of the primary school curriculum. 

Dunshaughlin Community College 
This grant will equip a class of 30 second-level students with laptops in support of the STEM elements of the Junior Exam Cycle. This programme will raise awareness of the importance of STEM in society and, through the use of technology and digital media tools, teach the students to learn, communicate, work, and think collaboratively and creatively.

CoderDojo, Dunshaughlin 
CodorDojo is a national programme to teach and encourage children to code. This grant will enable the purchase of equipment - including laptops, projector, and robotics equipment - to further the development of the Dunshaughlin ‘dojo’.

St Peter's College, Dunboyne 
St. Peter’s is a second-level community college with over 1,000 students. This grant will support the college to purchase over 60 student tablets to create digital labs for use in school science, green schools and well-being programmes, as well as creative music, animation, and coding, programmes.

Dunboyne Community Centre with St Peter's College, Dunboyne 
This grant will enable the Community Centre to install a DMX controlled lighting grid for a shared community performance and events space. This seed support is for year one of a three year project pursued by the Centre to install a new digitally enabled lighting system in the space, facilitating exciting new performance opportunities for the community and new learning opportunities for the students of St. Peter’s College. 

Dunboyne Junior Primary School, Dunboyne
This grant will fund digital equipment for every individual classroom in this primary school. The ICT package will include a laptop, projector, interactive board and visualiser for each of the school’s 19 classrooms.

Dunboyne Senior Primary School, Dunboyne 
The grant will allow the school to dramatically improve their STEM curriculum through the purchasing of tablets and laptops and a number of robotics and engineering kits. The new STEM programme will include a focus on life sciences, which the grant will support through the purchase of an Aquaponics Aquarium and an extension of their award-winning pollinator programme, giving students the opportunities to see STEM-related concepts come to life in the natural world.

17th Meath, Longwood Scout Group, Enfield
This grant will allow the group to purchase a range of equipment including a whiteboard, projector, and laptop as well as extensive radio equipment, in order to introduce young people to the importance of ICT and telecommunication, particularly in the use of radio telecommunications for emergency events and natural disasters. The equipment purchased will specifically support entrants to JOTA-JOTI (an annual global scouting event which takes place virtually, online and over the air, using amateur radio and skype) while also being made available for use in the community beyond the JOTA-JOTI event. 

Enfield Development Group, Enfield 
The group will use this grant to install a QR (quick response code) enabled digital notice board as part of a new community ‘Fairy Trail’ they have created. Passionate about improving the quality of life for people in the Enfield area, this volunteer-led community group are particularly focused on 0-9 year-olds (and their parents!) who make up 25% of Enfield’s population. The digital notice board will connect people to information about the group, the overall community and the town of Enfield.

Rathbeggan National School 
This grant will allow the school to purchase 140 BBC micro:bit computers – one for every student in the 5th and 6th classes. Together with additional ICT purchases facilitated by the grant the school aims to establish a Coder Dojo group and introduce coding and robotics to the students. 

Youth Work Ireland Meath, Navan 
Young people in Direct Provision don't have regular social outlets to meet with their peers, so this grant will enable digital investment and related support for integrating young people in Direct Provision with other teens in the community. The project aims to empower young refugees to tell their own story through digital tools, while at the same time learning new skills which will enable them to access opportunities in the future. 

Gaelscoil na Mí, Ashbourne 
This grant will provide a digital lab for the Meath Primary school through the purchase of 16 tablets, a workstation and other lab items for students. This new digital lab will allow the school to provide digitally enhanced learning and STEM education. 

Third Age Foundation, Summerhill 
Third Age offers a menu of programmes for older people in Meath, including life-long learning, health and well-being, information provision, volunteering opportunities, inter-generational projects, opportunities for creative expression, social inclusion, and community development. This grant will support digital skills courses for 50 older individuals at their new digital hub in Summerhill.

St Mary's Primary School, Trim
This ICT upgrade grant will enable the school to deliver an innovative inter-generational project that pairs secondary school students with senior citizens in local community nursing homes for learning opportunities. The students will collaborate with nursing home residents to teach them how to access the internet and communicate with their families and the outside world, while students improve their own empathy and communication skills through the programme.

Culmullen National School, Drumree 
This grant will allow the school to purchase, for the first time, two interactive touch screen ActivPanels for school classrooms and a number of tablets for teacher and student use. This ICT upgrade will greatly enhance the student’s learning possibilities and bring STEM programmes alive.