On Wednesday 25 November, Smashing Times Artistic Director Mary Moynihan was delighted to present at The Wheel’s EU Funding and Civil Society: The Launch of Access Europe.

This event with Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne TD launched The Wheel’s Access Europe project. Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Access Europe is a continuation of a previous successful project also involving The Wheel that will provide information, advice, helpdesk support and network building opportunities for civil society organisations around accessing and managing EU funding. The event included a discussion between CEO of The Wheel Deirdre Garvey and Minister of State Thomas Byrne TD on civil society opportunities at EU level, and how Access Europe can support engagement. It also launched the first of what will be a series of Access Europe Spotlight Events, in which The Wheel will highlight up-and-coming EU policy areas and the opportunities available to civil society through them. This first session focused on the EU and social economy and featured a panel discussion with various European social economy experts.

Mary was delighted to be introduced as the first special guest to speak to the 300 registered audience members, about how the work of Smashing Times developed through its European projects. Speaking about projects such as ‘Drama for Change’ and ‘Women War and Peace’ provided the audience with a background into the work of Smashing Times, and highlighted the impact that accessing European funding can have on an organisation’s development. Through accessing funding from Erasmus+, Europe for Citizens and Communicating Europe, Smashing Times have been successful in consistently promoting European values of human rights and equality for all.

The organisation has achieved this through European projects such as:

Arts for Human Rights – using creative processes of theatre, film and new digital technologies to promote learning and raise awareness in relation to human rights and gender equality across Europe.

Value and Attitudes Education for Inclusive Europe (EVIA) – instilling values and positive attitudes towards life and society in students throughout Europe by harnessing open education and new technologies to enhance the resources, training, cooperation and democracy of education.

Play It Out Loud – creating new workshop models for working with young people, using drama lessons and drama methodologies to assist in overcoming extreme shyness and to promote social inclusion in children.

For more information on our European projects, click here.