Daire Hennessy, CEO of Citywise Education
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.
What challenges do young people face in tough neighborhoods?
This week's news of drug gangs and related gun culture was a stark reminder of the challenges facing young people and their parents living in some of the tougher neighbourhoods in our cities. The problems are complex and the answers are not simple, but community support and a solid education are undoubtedly an important part of any solution. My next guest is living proof of that and is working in terms of sharing his own experience and his own success in his own community of Tala. He is the CEO of CityWise Education. His name is Dara Hennessy. Dara, good morning and welcome. Morning, Pat. Great to be here.
How does Daire Hennessy's background influence his work?
Now, you're only young for it to be a CEO, are you not?
I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm only 27 and I'm in the job maybe kind of two and a half years, I'd say. So you're 25 when you got the job? Yeah, yeah, but I suppose my own experience in CityWise probably would have been a big selling point when it came to my interview and that type of thing.
Now talk to me about your own background and I mean you ended up going to college and indeed you even went to a private school. Explain how all of that unfolded.
Yeah, so I grew up in Tallaght. My mum and I are both Tallaght heads and we grew up kind of in an area just kind of West Tallaght, just on the periphery of Jobstown. And really from the age of eight, I would have first got involved in Citywise.
What role does Citywise Education play in community support?
So for me... I suppose maybe if I take a step back, really, my own mother and father would have been very young when I came along. So I was actually born right in the smack bang middle, in the middle of my mother's leave insert. She completed it in the Rotunda Hospital. And so really, when I came along, they weren't going on to college. No, they had nappies to be changing and they had to look after me. And what educational background did they have? So they would have finished their leaving cert. Obviously my mother done her level best to try and finish that when I came along.
But no ambitions to go to college at that time?
No, and it wouldn't have been possible, like I said, wherever they were, change of mind, not be. So there wouldn't have been a huge culture of that at the time either in the area we're from. But when I kind of got involved as kind of in primary school, would have been my first interaction with CityWise.
And how did you come across CityWise? I mean, did your parents hear about it and suggest you go or were you recruited in school for CityWise?
Yeah, kind of a mixture of both. So I kind of ended up in Citywise by fluke. At the time, there was a kind of a new shiny Astro that Citywise had developed. And that was a big draw for me and my friends. So we kind of went over one day to start playing football.
How does Citywise interact with the formal education system?
And over time, we would have been kind of slowly brought into the fold where they would invite us maybe to go on trips or hikes or canoeing or whatever else was happening. But in tandem with that, then I also would have been pushed from the kind of school side as well, where CityWise has great relationships in our community. So they would, the school would have been saying, we would have went on a lot of school trips.
So this was the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the Astro and the Higgs and the crack, in other words, was on offer. But part of the package was also, and you better explain to me how CityWise interact with the formal education system to encourage you to focus on things.
Yeah, so I suppose the secret there is like nobody comes to CityWise because they want to go to college. You come and they're 8, 9, 10, like I did. And it's for the crack, as you said, it's for meeting people that you like, getting kind of settled in the environment. And over time then, instead of coming for football, someone in CityWise will suggest, well, why don't you come tomorrow and bring your homework and I'll help you with your multiplication or your spelling or whatever it was that we were doing at the time. And then from there, you know, you're no longer coming to CityWise for the sport and the art and the music.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:07
2
What challenges do young people face in tough neighborhoods?
0:07–0:42
3
How does Daire Hennessy's background influence his work?
0:42–1:28
4
What role does Citywise Education play in community support?
1:28–2:43
5
How does Citywise interact with the formal education system?
2:43–5:12
6
What is the history and genesis of Citywise Education?
5:12–7:34
7
How does Citywise Education support its students academically?
7:34–9:36
8
What impact does Citywise have on the local community?
9:36–11:42