The Census of the Heart survey will run for 4 weeks from April 24 – May 22 on censusoftheheart.com. You can click on this link to take the survey in English, or here in Irish, which will take roughly 8 minutes of your time and is completely anonymous.
How are you? How are you really?
On a wild March day back in 2011, the doorbell rang. It was the census enumerator. He handed me the form and explained how to fill it in. I shut the door and began to glance at the questions
How many rooms in your household? How many cars? Do you have a PC?
As I flicked through the green pages of questions I felt my own question emerging – why is nobody asking how I am? You see my dad was dying and the questions about wifi in my house and what time I left for work felt so cold and empty. I was also very aware back then that the country was on its knees, people were really suffering at the peak of the financial crisis. I wondered why was nobody asking how we were as citizens of this country?
I called my friend and creative co-pilot Kathy Scott. If anyone knew how to address this in an innovative way she would. In 2009 we had founded the ireland:iceland project and hosted The Northern Lights Collaboratory where 1000+ Irish and Icelandic social architects, entrepreneurs and cultural creatives gathered for a series of interventions, talks, salons, expeditions about crisis and change. Kathy had also founded The Trailblazery, {Rites of Passage, We Need to Talk About Ireland} presenting cultural experiences that disrupt and evolve the status quo in Ireland.
When we realized that the 2016 National Census would coincide with the precise anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, we decided to take action. We pooled our creative resources and gathered a brilliant collective of people together, including an Icelandic research advisor based in UCD, Dr. Kristín Einarsdóttir MPH. M.Phil. to birth an alternative census.
“You’ll never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminister Fuller
We wanted to build a new model. We had zero capital but knew that if you want to change things you don’t wait for the perfect circumstances to line up. So we took the leap to prototype something that had never been done before.
Together we envisioned and created Census of the Heart, with the intention of evolving the National Census by simply asking people how they are. We wanted to open up a conversation that captures the deeper dimension of people’s lives and find out what it really means to be alive in Ireland exactly 100 years after the Rebellion. At its essence Census of the Heart asks: what we are paying attention to in our lives and in our society? It challenges the questions we ask, the data we are measuring and it invites people to have their say and express how they feel.
The information that we all filled out in the National Census, on April 24th is important, however if the objective is to “assist planning for the future”, it’s just not enough. The data we measure and put attention on shapes how we see the world and it also reflects what we attend to in our society. When we shift what we measure and broaden the focus to include how we are feeling, we begin to shape a future that cares about the human experience.
When someone asks “how are you?”, implicit in that is a sense of care. As human beings one of our basic needs is to belong and to be valued. When someone cares enough to check-in with us and meet us on that level we have the experience of belonging.
So, Census of the Heart delves a little deeper into the psyche and soul of the people in Ireland in 2016. We are asking questions that hold up a mirror helping us to see ourselves as individuals and as a collective. We want to know what matters to you, to the future of our society our country and our planet. We have been inspired by Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index which measures wellbeing in things like community, culture, governance, knowledge, wisdom, health, spirituality and psychological welfare, a balanced use of time, and harmony with the environment. These are the issues that really matter in 2016.
We want to get straight to the heart of things and look at the state of our nation right now. As a country we are at a meaningful intersection or “pivot point” at this moment in time. Down the tracks, 100 years from now, future generations will be able to access the National Census 2016 records and find out about us, their ancestors. What kind of Ireland do we want to leave behind for them? Can we influence future history? The answer is up to you and me, the answer is up to all of us.
The Ask: Tell us how you feel: Our mission is to connect with a broad section of people across the island of Ireland so we can get straight to the heart of things. We believe that all voices are important. We’re asking you to help us achieve our vision by completing Census of the Heart and then sharing it with friends, family, colleagues and even random strangers via your personal and professional social networks. The Census of the Heart survey will run for 4 weeks from April 24 – May 22 via censusoftheheart.com
Support Our Campaign
We rely on the generosity of the public to fund our work and so far together we have achieved great things! Please do continue to support us so we can provide future generations in Ireland with the resources to recognise and talk about their emotions, and equip them to navigate the ever-changing world around them as they grow
