Jobs in Galway: Healthy Galway City Coordinator, LGBTI+ Community Health Worker
On behalf of the Galway city Local Community Development Committee and Health Galway City, Galway City Partnership and Amach! CLG are seeking people for the roles in the Healthy Galway City initiative:
1. Healthy Galway City Coordinator - Full time
2. LGBTI+ Community Health Worker - Part time
Click here for more information
Stephanie Kirwan, from Drogheda, Co. Louth, was one of the first IUHPE Registered Health Promotion Practitioners in Ireland. Stephanie applied under Category 1 as the course she had completed was accredited by the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) at the time she graduated
Stephanie works for Development Perspectives where she coordinates a project called the #SDGchallenge which aims to raise awareness and action on the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, she is currently studying for an MA in International Development.
What Health Promotion course did you study?
BA in Health Promotion from Waterford Institute of Technology.
Up next on our career profiles- Sarah Chadwick gives us some insight into her role as a Cancer Prevention Officer in the Irish Cancer Society
What inspired you towards a career in health promotion?
When I saw the description of Sport Science and Health BSc in the prospectus as a 6th year student, I thought it would suit me given my interest in health and fitness. Once I started the course, it soon became clear to me that the area of the course I wanted to specialise in was health promotion because I felt passionate about empowering and supporting people to live healthy lives. Since then, I’ve been delighted to work in lots of different aspects of health promotion through my MSc studies and work experience- research and evaluation, building partnerships, advocating and programme planning and implementation. I can really see how Health Promotion has started to come to the fore in Ireland since I began my career so it’s very exciting to be working in an evolving and expanding field.
Paula Campbell AHPI Vice Chairperson shares her health promotion journey
What inspired you towards a career in health promotion?
My career started in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda where I worked as a Dietitian. Within a few years I became frustrated working in the hospital environment and wanted to move from a 'treatment' oriented approach to 'prevention'. Around that time, I heard Professor Cecily Kelleher speak at an AGM of the INDI and she mentioned that NUI Galway had just established a postgrad Diploma and MA in Health Promotion. That gave me the direction I was looking for and so I took a year out and returned to student life! Health Promotion was in its infancy at that point in Ireland and so it was 1997 before I was able to leave the hospital environment and move into the new Department of Health Promotion in the former North Eastern Health Board, where I have worked since.
