Mindful help for Laois students with period problems

An Abbeyleix woman who has just won a valuable social entrepreneurship grant is set to help students at a Portlaoise school live in sync with their menstrual cycles.

Paula Byrne, the founder of The Mindful Cycle, is one of eight organisations to win a place on Social Entrepreneurs Ireland’s (SEI) Action Lab programme.

This three-month programme aims to accelerate social change through the power of people. The eight successful participants had previously taken part on the SEI Ideas Academy, an earlier programme, and were chosen for the Action Lab based on their potential and progress since 2022.

Ms Byrne has earned her place on SEI’s follow-up accelerator, which includes tailored support and a bursary of €3,000. This win shows the continuation of support from SEI, with Ms Bryne recently graduating from the SEI Ideas Academy, where she earned her place in June 2022, and comes immediately after a successful pitch for seed funding in November 2022, where SEI awarded the Laois woman €2,500 for her project.

The Laois woman believes menstrual education is very limited in Ireland and the school curriculum is not up to date, leaving in students understanding about the menstrual cycle.

It is not included as part of relationship and sexuality education (RSE), nor as social, personal and health education (SPHE).
Ms Byrne started The Mindful Cycle in 2022 to tackle this deficit. The programme provides information about the menstrual cycle in a holistic manner, sharing resources about bodies, hormonal, energetic and emotional fluctuations throughout the month and how to support themselves and each other.

Since 2022, and with the support of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, Paula has been able to extend the reach of her support. Paula has hosted a variety of online webinars and courses educating teens and adults about their menstrual cycle. She has teamed up with Laois, Kildare, and West Cork Education Support Centers to facilitate workshops for teachers and SNAs.
Ms Byrne talks about her project and how she hopes to help young Laois students.

“The Mindful Cycle is a holistic period education programme and sustainable lifestyle approach to living in sync with the menstrual cycle. I am delighted to be piloting the programme in Scoil Chriost Ri in Portlaosie in February and giving the young women there access to education that was not available to me at school.

“I have two free webinars running next week for teachers and SNA's, a webinar for women in February and a parents webinar in March, all can be booked through appleblossomholistic.ie. Winning a place on the Action Lab has been the best start to 2023 for me, giving me support and funding to pilot and refine The Mindful Cycle and it is further validation for me that this education is much needed,” said Ms Byrne.

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland says its Action Lab supports the strategic progress of high-potential solutions and helps social entrepreneurs to develop as leaders by giving them the scaffolding and space to experiment and grow. It says the programme will do this through consultation, workshopping and by maximising the expertise available within SEI’s extensive network to help each participant progress towards achieving tangible impact.

Participants were selected for the programme following a period of internal research and selection on SEI’s behalf. At the end of the programme, participants can apply for a share of €21,000 in seed funding to further support their work.

Lydia Redmond is Programme Manager with Social Entrepreneurs Ireland.

“We are very excited to launch the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Action Lab. The eight participants are incredible social entrepreneurs, who we believe, with the right support, will accelerate the pace of change and help solve some of Ireland’s entrenched social problems,” she said.

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI) is a not-for-profit organisation (Charity Reg Number No: 20065379), that is committed to accelerated social change through the power of people. Since its foundation in 2004, SEI has identified and supported more than 550 social entrepreneurs across the island of Ireland who are championing and driving solutions in areas such as mental health, homelessness, the environment, education, and unemployment.

For more information, see www.socialentrepreneurs.ie