This course starts on Monday, 7th of February and will run on Mondays 7-9 pm.

This Innovating Communities Course will maximise and harness Ardara's potential to build sustainable wealth and create a sustainable environment for the local community. By training participants in Design Thinking, a creative problem-solving process, and bringing like-minded people together, we can examine Ardara's challenges and come up with solutions.

Ardara is a town located in Donegal. In 2012, The Irish Times named it the best village to live in Ireland, and with a close community, this town has great potential to tackle sustainable and social issues. This course focuses on the challenge of bringing together several different focuses within the community's shared desire to make Ardara more sustainable.

New challengers are welcome to join at any point; request to join, and the trainer will get in touch to make sure you are up to speed.

Innovating Communities courses are led by Design Thinking experts and community volunteer 'co-trainers' to help training teams tackle projects like these.

Our Design Thinking training teaches valuable skills that can be used to create people-centred, innovative plans in response to challenges or opportunities like the one above. You will also have access to 1-on-1 mentoring from your trainer and co-trainer. Co-trainers are volunteers from your county with knowledge and/or experience in community action.

The schedule will be determined once the interested team have registered their interest and are ready to begin. The Course length can vary between 21 and 42 hours of training based on team availability and the weight of the Challenge. You and your team are expected to commit to weekly training sessions, typically 2 hours in length. The team will also conduct community research and outreach during various course stages between sessions.