‘Creating Space: Stories of Bunclody’ is a powerful community-led photovoice project developed through the Empowering Communities Programme in partnership with Dr Maria Quinlan. Residents came together to use photography to document the realities of daily life in Bunclody capturing the challenges, the hidden inequalities, the small everyday acts of connection, and the deep strengths within the community. 

The Empowering Communities Programme (ECP) is rooted in the values and principles of community work – participation, equality, collective action, and social justice. In Bunclody, the programme has spent the past three years working alongside residents across three local areas to strengthen community leadership and build community-led responses to long-standing inequalities.

‘Creating Space’ captures a moment in time where community members came together to creatively explore the issues that matter most to them. It shifts the narrative away from asking “what is wrong with communities?” and instead asks “what matters to communities?” placing power back in their hands and affirming their right to shape their own futures.

What emerges is a powerful portrait of community life: images and stories that speak to resilience, belonging, and the everyday work of strengthening connections. Participants highlighted both the barriers that continue to affect local wellbeing – from traffic congestion, isolation to uneven access to opportunities – and the collective strengths that enable communities to respond, support one another, and imagine new possibilities together.

This project is both a celebration and an invitation: a celebration of the people who make their communities vibrant, and an invitation to continue building a more equitable, inclusive, and connected Bunclody through shared leadership and collective action.