Serving Connection: Hospitality as a Catalyst for Change in Public Places
This project, a unique interdisciplinary collaboration between A Playful City and SWAN Youth Service (supported by HubSpot), focused on empowering young people from Dublin's inner city by fostering entrepreneurship and equipping them to leverage local public spaces for community cohesion. Building on five years of established partnerships within the community, the 2023 initiative aimed to deepen these connections and broaden the project's reach.
Central to the program was nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of young people from Swan Youth Service. They were actively involved in designing and custom-building an "Enterprise Mobile" – a sustainable pop-up stall used for events like the Culture Night 2023 showcase. Through a series of co-hosted workshops with leading creative talents, young participants explored and refined their business ideas, focusing on themes like local food heritage (with artist Jennie Moran), food business basics (with Avril Murphy), and creative writing/poetry (with FELISPEAKS). They also engaged in hands-on activities like planting at Mud Island Community Garden for fresh produce.
These workshops and pop-up events, including a Community Picnic and a HubSpot Community Day ("Picnic & Chats"), built progressively, culminating in the Culture Night 2023 showcase event at Spencer Dock. Here, the young entrepreneurs, artists, and chefs served homemade food, performed poetry, and showcased their skills to the wider community. Additionally, a "Mentor Moments" program connected young people with HubSpot employees for career guidance. This project not only facilitated significant community engagement, reaching over 2,400 people through various activities and achieving substantial media reach, but also provided young participants with valuable skills, confidence, and in some cases, even HACCP certification and inspiration for business courses in college.
