IT HAS BEEN a busy month for our community-led investigative platform, Noteworthy, as the team is now working on several recently funded investigations including Banks of the Lee, Speak or Survive and Solving Solar.
Last month was a record breaker for the team, with the highest number of supporters funding investigation projects since we began operating. Thanks so much to you, our readers, for making this happen.
The team also published several articles, including a number of opinion pieces linked to proposed investigations.
The Noteworthy team recently launched a project on the long-term impact of Covid-19 in Ireland and how we can help plan the nation’s rebuild and recovery. Below are the latest proposals based on ideas and concerns raised in submissions from the public.
SHUTTING THE DOOR: Will the pandemic make it even harder for people with disabilities to get jobs in Ireland? With such a poor baseline employment level, the Noteworthy team wants to examine what the future holds for people with disabilities.
NIL BY MOUTH: Why are patients still eating poor quality hospital food? The team want to find out what is happening on the wards and how this can be improved, focusing on the impact of Covid-19 on inpatients with special diets.
PANDEMIC UNPLANNED: Will the Irish health system be better prepared for the next emergency? The team wants to investigate what needs to be done within the health service to prepare for future emergencies.
WHAT’S THE BEEF? The Covid-19 price crash exposing the beef sector’s soft underbelly. This proposal will examine what can be done to ensure a viable future for farming families who are currently raising cattle.
COURT IN E-SESSION: Will Covid-19 force the judicial system into the digital age? Help Noteworthy to take a look at how the the Irish judicial system is adapting to the new age of video-link and electronic filing.
The Noteworthy team has several other proposals that form part of the Covid-19 project that you may be interested in on the Noteworthy website here covering issues such as the impact on horticulture, the childcare sector, and artists across the country.
Noteworthy hope to supplement this project through our general contributions fund. If you wish to support that drive, contribute what you can here.
However, it’s not too late to send us your ideas and you can do this by sending us a note on what worries you most about what Ireland will look like in six months’ time to noteworthy.ie/entry.
Fully funded projects
As mentioned above, the Noteworthy team are delighted to announce that May was a bumper month in terms of both the value and number of contributions received.
Thanks to this support, a record number of proposals were funded in one month - Caring for Carers, Speak or Survive, Solving Solar and Parent Rights.
Reporter Peter McGuire is currently digging into the Speak or Survive project through which the team has been contacted by over 30 people, including those who have had an experience of a sexual crime and people from groups representing abuse survivors.
Peter is also working on Parent Rights, although delays in Freedom of Information (FOI) processes during the pandemic meant that some of the most important requests were put on hold. We are due to receive some documents in the coming days which will allow us to continue with the story.
Reporter Niall Sargent is in the early stages of research for Solving Solar so if you have any experience with rooftop solar, please get in touch at information@noteworthy.ie.
The Noteworthy team has also put out the below call for paid home or nursing home carer who worked during the pandemic to come forward with our experience for our Caring for Carers project to examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on carers.
Recent articles
In support of the Something in the Air proposal to examine air pollution, Niall Sargent took a look at the latest release of air quality data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that showed a clear link between a decrease in air pollution and Covid-19 movement restrictions.
Cystic fibrosis patient Jillian McNulty penned this important piece, sharing her poor hospital food experience as she enters her fifth week in hospital. Nutrition can be just as important as daily medications for people with cystic fibrosis, and Jillian’s overall experience does not paint a pretty picture.
Noteworthy wants to go further in our new Nil by Mouth proposal and look in-depth at long-mooted changes to food services and whether this will bring the country in line with best nutritional practice in a clinical setting.
On Saturday, we also posted this piece from the award-winning photographer and disability advocate Eddie Hennessy about how entrepreneurs with a disability need more support to compete in the market as they face additional and distinctive challenges.
You can also support a new Noteworthy proposal here to look into the impact that the pandemic will have on jobs for people with disabilities.
87 - Articles published, funded through proposals or our general fund.
54 - Open proposals compiled from ideas sent to us by the public.
4 – Proposals funded over the past month. A new record!
5 - Proposals on our way to being funded soon:
Follow the links above if you want to find out how you can get these projects over the line. The investigations can’t begin until the proposals are funded so please spread the word via friends and social media.
You can also help Noteworthy in a few other ways:
To find out how contributions are used, or anything else about how Noteworthy works, click here. You can also sign up to our Insider Newsletter or find us on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to email information@noteworthy.ie
Thanks so much for your continued support!
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