TU Dublin is delighted to facilitate the inaugural Irish Social, Community and Therapeutic
Horticulture Symposium on Friday 6th September 2019. This event will take place 9:30am-4:30pm at the Learning & Innovation Centre (LINC), TU Dublin Blanchardstown. The theme for the symposium is ‘Therapeutic use of Horticulture: Research, Practice and the Future’ and will feature a keynote from Dr. Joe Sempik, renowned Social and Therapeutic Horticulture researcher and author.
The symposium will focus on practice in Social, Community and Therapeutic Horticulture in Ireland, highlighting evidence-based practice and practice evaluation and will demonstrate the array of practice ongoing in Ireland through research, practitioner presentations and interactive workshops.
This symposium is hosted by the recently established Social, Community and Therapeutic
Horticulture practitioner network (https://www.scthireland.com) and is sponsored by Technological University Dublin with support from Horticulture Connected, GIY (Grow it Yourself), Festina Lente, Waterford Institute of Technology and Teagasc.
Rachel Freeman, event organiser and lecturer in Horticulture at TU Dublin says “In Ireland we have a niche, but growing profession of the use of horticulture for health and wellbeing practice. These activities are practiced in clinical, social and community settings by a range of professionals who operate both alone, or within multi-disciplinary teams. Social and therapeutic horticulture sits within the framework of Green care, with care or social farming, ecotherapy, nature therapy and other related disciplines, and is defined as ‘the purposeful use of the outdoors to promote health and wellbeing and facilitate social inclusion’. We hope that this inaugural event will raise awareness of Therapeutic Horticulture whilst highlighting the valuable work that is currently being undertaken by our colleagues in the discipline”.
To book tickets please visit https://irish-scth-symposium.eventbrite.com. Places are limited and interested parties are advised to book early.
TU Dublin, Ireland’s first Technological University, is where career-focused students, dedicated staff and academic excellence in science, the arts, business, engineering and technology converge to create the leaders of tomorrow. With campuses in Dublin City, Tallaght and Blanchardstown, it spans the largest population centres of Ireland’s capital city. TU Dublin is an exciting new milestone in Irish Higher Education which builds on the rich heritage of its founding organisations – DIT, IT Blanchardstown and IT Tallaght.
TU Dublin Blanchardstown offers a range of practice-based horticulture courses on a full time and part-time basis. These programmes are designed to develop the knowledge, skills and practical experience needed to work in the dynamic and developing horticulture sector and are delivered from our state of the art Horticulture facility in Blanchardstown. For further information on our programmes, please email info.blanchardstown@tudublin.ie
