11 Aug Summer Newsletter

Hello,

We hope that you and your families are all well.

Despite the obvious challenges of the past few months, the Connect the Dots Ireland team has been active with partners and clients all over Ireland and collaborating directly with our US office in Philadelphia. We wanted to take the time to share a few key updates and highlights which we hope can potentially contribute towards your own work in making our cities and towns places where citizens are directly involved in designing the spaces that they live, work and play.

On Thursday 2nd June, Connect the Dots welcomed over 100 global attendees who joined us live for our Future of Cities: Can Blue Skies Follow Grey? Webinar. Marisa Denker and Naomi Murphy, Co-Founders and Directors of Connect the Dots welcomed a panel of urbanists, architects, and innovators from both sides of the Atlantic to share their thoughts on what our cities can be for citizens and why now is the perfect time to start seeking out opportunities to do things differently.

To get a quick visual overview of the event, take a look at the illustrations made during the webinar by our amazing collaborator Eimear McNally, and for a more in-depth analysis of the main topics covered and the insights and ideas shared by our panel of speakers click HERE

Based on feedback following the event, we intend to revisit some of the themes in more depth in the early autumn. If you would like to sign up to receive notification of the time and date, visit our website and register your details.

Finally, for those who did join us but who have yet to send us your comments, you can access our quick online survey HERE.

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We were delighted to celebrate the inclusion of Connect the Dots USA in a prestigious $1 million investment by the Knight Foundation in 7 innovative projects that put data to work in the support of greater civic engagement. The Edit the City! project in Philadelphia will generate public-sourced open data recommendations for the vision planning process for the South Street Headhouse District, a key city-centre shopping district in Philadelphia. Marisa Denker recently shared some insights on the project on LinkedIn and the Connect the Dots website

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We would like to invite you to the online launch of a Pan-European project GOGREEN ROUTES led by University of Limerick and that we are a partner in.

Go Green Routes is a €10.5m European project that aims to transform both environmental and human health. This four-year project, which applies visionary and integrated solutions to improve health in cities, will commence in September, coordinated by the Health Research Institute at UL. The overall objective is to position European cities as world ambassadors of urban sustainability. It will take Covid-19 into consideration and will evaluate the impact of reduced air pollution during lockdown and its aftermath, as well as the impact on the mental health of urban citizens and their views on re-greening their cities. It involves 39 stakeholders and partners across twelve different countries, targeting eight target cities (including, Versailles, Umea, Tallinn and Aveiro).

Join us on Monday July 20th at 1pm for the launch beginning with a welcome address from Chancellor of UL, Mary Harney. We will be presenting along with other strategic partners.

Join Zoom Meeting:

Meeting ID: 879 7795 5465
Password: 254555
One tap mobile
+13462487799

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That’s all for now but please follow us on social media and on our website for updates on our work in the era of Covid-19 and how we are working with clients to ensure that projects stay on time and on budget in the era of virtual or remote engagement. Click here for our latest version.

To speak to us about any of the above or to discuss an upcoming project or opportunity, please contact Naomi Murphy [email protected].