'Be wary of markets, boards and sharp elbows' Wheel conference told

Excellent speakers attended The Wheel’s conference during the summer, among them Martyn Evans, Mary Murphy and Brendan Halligan, REPORTS ALLEN MEAGHER.

Company boards were identified as the greatest barrier to advocacy work, co-operation is the way forward (no surprise) and we’ve to be wary of the market and “sharp-elbowed people”.

 Martyn Evans, CEO of the Carnegie UK Trust noted that the average life expectancy of Irish males had risen greatly in the past 100 years (from 53 to 79 years) and the current social system appeared to have served us well,

We're all healthier, wealthier, wiser, and certainly better educated. But income inequality in Ireland has changed very little, he noted. For example, 10% of children leave school unable to read.

While there have been massive improvements, they have been differentially distributed which is a sign of “system failure”.

One outcome, he said, was that less than 50% of people across Europe have trust in their governments, according to the OECD.

Ryan Howard of East Cork says - Think positive!

PROFILE INTERVIEW 

Who’s your hero?

Nelson Mandela. And my late father was a great man, a hard worker.

Nationally, what do we need more of?

We need to move away from the negative and begin focussing in on the positives. There’s not enough good news being reported and it has a subliminal effect on us all.

New Resource: National Programme Contacts Database

We've compiled a contacts database of staff throughout the Local and Community Development Programme and it’s ALL HERE (meaning if you click here you'll download the full Excel document):

If you're looking to contact all the rural social scheme staff in the Programme, this should help. It doesn’t matter who you’re looking for – we’ve them all listed: LCDP staff working with YOUTH, JOBS CLUBS, MEDIATION, FINANCE, ETC. You’ll find them here on our database.

Note: The database is 85% complete – if your Local Development Company’s listing is incomplete please fill out this form and return it to us!

- Allen Meagher, editor/manager, ‘Changing Ireland’.

HUNDREDS OF BUSINESS STARTS AND JOBS YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT

Thousands of people have been directly helped to set up in business or find suitable work since the start of this year, through the Local and Community Development Programme.

For instance, Donegal Local Development Company directly supported over 153 small family businesses to open up in the first 11 months of this year. That compares with 146 people who directly set up in small businesses upon finishing a course run by the Northside Partnership in Dublin.

Some companies focused on supporting people on the margins, for instance long-term unemployed people with mental health challenges, to better prepare for and find suitable work.

In our upcoming print edition, we have short reports from Cork, Dublin, Galway, Donegal and Laois showing how Local Development Companies are slowly but steadily getting people into business or helping them find suitable work. The courses and local programmes on offer are giving people opportunities they didn't have before.

These are jobs you don't hear about in IDA announcements, because they come about through the work of Local Development Companies, they usually involve the establishment of small or family businesses, and they're emerging one-by-one around the country.

Our reports indicate that thousands of people are benefitting and by that we mean finding work. The full tally should emerge in time through data-collection systems operating within the Programme.

- Allen Meagher, Editor

Limerick CDPs' alternative model - details published here

CDPs across the country are currently integrating into the Local and Community Development Programme and some have sought to win approval for an alternative structure that better suits their communitys' needs.

The Limerick model for setting up a Citywide CDP, as looked on favourably by the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs is now available online (click here). The document gives details of the proposed new voluntary management structure and may be of interest to projects in other parts of the country considering their options.

The Limerick model proposes “that instead of ‘integrating’ Partnerships and CDP’s in Limerick city, CDPs are amalgamated into one “City CDP” thus retaining local voluntary involvement with real responsibility and a continued say in decisions affecting their community.”

Limerick CDPs are aiming to “ensure that the LCDP is delivered as effectively and efficiently as possible with the maximum participation and buy in from volunteers engaged over the years on CDP management committees.”

In Cork, CDPs have developed another alternative in co-operation with the HSE, while Women’s CDPs and Traveller CDPs are also understood to be at advanced stages in working out with the Department how a different model could work for their CDPs and their communities’ needs.

In most parts of the country, CDPs are being absorbed into Local Development Companies (aka Partnerships) and many if not most of them are likely to close down as companies.

An alternative model proposed by Donegal CDP’s was not accepted by the Department.

The Department have been clear that they want savings made in the areas of staff, HR, audit, administration and legal bills.