Camphill staff graduates in Disability Studies

Joe Lynch, COO of Dunshane Community; Imelda Whelan; Kim Donegan; Ann Sheehan, CEO of Camphill Communities of Ireland who presented the awards; Martha Maginn, Training Consultant; Linda Dreijere; Geraldine Doran; Elyse Clarke; Kate Abratanska; and Catriona Harney.

Several members of local Camphill staff were presented with certificates last night at the Dunshane Community for completing the QQI Level 5 course in Disability Studies as mature students, writes Brian Byrne.

They were Kim Donegan, Kate Abratanska, Elyse Clarke, Geraldine Doran, Linda Dreijere, Caitriona Harney, Joe Lynch and Imelda Whelan. Gareth Lovett, Jenny Frister and Sophie Schweitzer also completed the course, but were unable to attend for the certificates presentation.

Introducing the graduates, Martha Maginn of Martha McGinn Training & Consultancy congratulated them for putting in so much work on the course. "Everybody excelled, and there was tremendous growth in skills," she said. "You should all be very proud of yourselves, and you will be a tremendous asset to Camphill, having learned the really subtle things that make a support worker great."

She noted that while it had been 'a long year', the course is a progression towards a degree programme, and she hoped that in the future she might be meeting with some of them again as degree graduates.

Ann Sheehan, CEO of Camphill Communities of Ireland, presented the certificates and transcripts of results to the graduates and congratulated them on a 'fantastic achievement'. "It can be very hard to go back and study the theory behind what you have been doing," she said. "But it gives you confidence in the practice of your everyday work when you know the theory behind it."


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