Workshops in design thinking in order to progress development of the Cavan-Leitrim rail trail from Mohill to Ballinamore and to incorporate and develop a McGahern “experience” in this project linking the places and people that John McGahern wrote about, where he lived and the experiences he had. This would be an interpretative trail for John McGahern fans with a number of interpretative centres along the way. The Cavan Leitrim Rail trail project is a greenway (walking cycling) project which has been in development for many years and it is slowly taking shape. The concept and projects are locally led, in many cases, and with an overall strategy and actions being led by the local authorities in Cavan and Leitrim.

This programme will focus on the community elements of these developments and will use design thinking. https://www.innovating.ie/design-thinking Design Thinking is a process that puts people at the heart of solving Challenges. It can be applied to any Challenge, from helping young people access better job opportunities, to developing a community infrastructure. No matter how big or small your Challenge or community, this programme will help you use Design Thinking to your benefit and to progress this project. Simply put, it is a human-centred process that puts people at the heart of the challenge and together as a team, work through problem-solving exercises at each stage of the challenge: First, accepting what the challenge is, and the opportunities it presents, empathizing with the people who are affected by the challenges, by engaging with them and understanding their needs. This helps to define our challenge, ensuring that we are answering the right questions, and addressing the right problem. Then moving into the exciting stage of ideating, imagining the best ways we can solve our challenge- at this stage, no idea is too big! Then We choose a solution to focus on together, and test it to make sure it works, gathering feedback from our prototype and presenting our findings.

At the end of this we hope you will come away with newly developed collaborative ideas and skills that you can use, and that this project will have developed.

Photo credit: Frank Miller