€7.3 Million Programme Investment From Clare Local Development Company Across Clare

0:00New figures show the Clare Local Development Company over some more than 7.3 million euro in program investment across Clare last year, supporting a wide range of initiatives from community facilities and rural tourism projects to training employment schemes and social inclusion supports. And I'm joined now in studio by the CLDC-CEO, lots of letters there and accrims at Doreen Grain. Doreen, good morning to you. Thanks very much for coming in. Good morning, Alan. And you haven't come alone because from your social inclusion and community activation program team. Join me, Hannah Griffey as well. Hannah, good morning to you. Good morning, Alan. Thanks very much to the two of you for coming in. I look, Doreen, I'll start with yourself, very positive news, that is a lot of program investment across the county. You can give us an overview of what that represents for communities around Clare. Yeah, well, I think probably a lot of people in the county know leader, our leader program and so there's a good bit of funding from leader has been invested into the county in the last year and we've had quite a lot of projects approved. So everything from tourism projects to community projects and things that I suppose we're looking

1:05at, you know, traditional things like wall, the potential for how we can use wall in the future, our current building, stone wall building. So there's lots of such traditional skills, environmental projects, community projects, tourism, social enterprises like the design bank in Melta, Malbe, which some of you will have seen. It's been a great new project that's got all of that. We've had quite a few creators who have availed of the bank on the show and it sounds like a great spot. Yes, it is and you know, it's a really good example of how people coming together as social enterprise is really taking off in Clare and around the country. So that's a project we're really proud of and you know, all the projects like Hazel Mountain Chocolate, 12 o'clock hills, you know, the development of the walking trail and Clare's for Clon Lara. In fact, you know, there's a really good spread of community enterprise and training skills development and environmental projects all around the county and that's just later.

2:06I mean, the other program I suppose that's a really big program in CLEC is the social inclusion program. Hannah's going to talk a little bit about one thing we're doing there, but that crosses a huge amount of areas of need, social inclusion, need for community groups and people who need support, you know, to find employment to develop their skills and so there's a huge amount of inclusion work done there as well. We do a lot of employment supports. We've up to 600 people last year supported who are long-term unemployed who get an ongoing service, helping them to get ready for employment and hopefully to find a job and we help people to find a job as well and to stay in those jobs, you know, when they get in there because that can be a challenge as well. And so we're doing a lot around sustainable energy communities work with helping to establish a traveler organization and care that represents travelers and I suppose that empowers and

3:07builds their capacity to, you know, look after their own needs but also to, you know, to work with other organizations and the county to improve the situation for travelers and local communities as well. Okay. So you're saying it's pretty quiet on the CLDC front, is that what you're telling us? Yeah. Does only about half of it. That's only about half of it. Okay. It sounds like this very little in the county, you're not, you're not, you're not trying to better or get, or be involved with and Hannah Doreen did mention, you know, you're involved at the psychapside of things and a big part of the program is tackling social exclusion. Does that look like in practical terms for people living in Claire? Yeah. So the biggest thing for us at the moment were for me personally that I've been working on is this warmer home scheme. So it's all about our energy poverty, making sure no one gets left behind and the warmer's home scheme has been a huge part of that. And so it's a fully funded initiative by the SAI and it supports eligible homeowners to improve their home energy efficiency and then making homes warmer, healthier and like more affordable to run.

4:08It's really important that like supports like this and we've been helping people apply for it and reach people who need them the most and particularly like I said, those at risk of energy poverty. And I guess just on that, you know, when I think of people who need help applying, I think of older people and the method through which they apply is it all online and do digital applications cause any, any issues, potential issues for them. Absolutely. And that's kind of why we've been helping so much. So it's, we're not just promoting this scheme or supporting people through that application process because we do know that there's real barriers there for some people, especially like you say with the digital applications. So that hands on support that the SAI Cup team are helping with is key to it. Okay. You're only halfway during through what the work, great work that CLDC is doing is very thing else of knows that people should be aware of. Yeah. I think the role of social scheme and thooce is a, there are two work placement schemes, community sort of work placement schemes that are long established in CLDC and have been

5:09on the ground in practically every community in the county for many years. So there's hardly a community in the county that doesn't have a role social scheme or a thooce worker. And those people are doing great work on the ground helping with tidy towns, sports facilities, J clubs, you know, a lot of those sort of community organizations or groups on the ground that we know of in the community halls, the, the grade yards, all of those sort of things that that work is quietly done, but consistently they're helping communities to keep on top. Because volunteers are very stretched as you know. Yeah. I mean, I'm just thinking about the difference that would make in local communities, the infrastructure, be it trails, youth facilities, community centers and what that, what that kind of investment can mean for rural towns and villages, because we talk quite a lot on the show about issues of population and facilities and services and rural areas and how a lack of them can lead to deep population. So being able to bring some of these up to standard can only be a positive thing in helping a rural community to thrive and continue.

6:10Yeah. And I think, you know, a lot of community groups have done fantastic work over the last number of years. And it's been a lot of public funding to build and set up community facilities and community centers and halls. And we've seen great projects and facilities, community facilities around the county. But the challenge for volunteers as well is maintaining them, keeping the doors open, keeping them maintained, cleaned, you know, operating so, you know, people can use them. And that's, you know, helping, I suppose, the Tucson or SS schemes really help communities to do that. So that's making a big difference all over the county. The other thing I suppose to mention is something that is normally associated with us, but we have a community childcare facility in Kilrush, which we've 74 children from Kilrush and the West Clare area, you know, providing a car to be a child care and Kilrush alongside Gleab House, which is a community and family support hub that we've opened in the last year, which is to support the local community. So we've also taken over what was the Irish wheelchair association's charity shop in

7:16Ennis. And we're now running that as a social enterprise. There's a lot of volunteers and people working in that facility who are contributing to, you know, the local economy and who are helping to provide, you know, a service to people. And it's all part of our kind of our social enterprise and just transition work that Hannah's involved in as well. So there's quite a lot of things there that I suppose the trails as well, and I suppose many people who are associated with the Clistome Over Trail, which now the Clare County Council have taken over. But there's all the rest of the trails in the county that we manage, including the Buron Way, which is a huge trail, and we're constantly developing and maintaining that as well alongside the landowners. So tons, tons happen in. I think for anyone who might have been fully aware of just how crucial the CLDC is, this is certainly shedding some light on that, Torin, and you were telling us Hannah earlier on about the SEA, I fully funded warmer home scheme. Tell us a bit about the community attic insulation project that's starting here in Ennis.

8:18Yes. So that's a weed partnered with Ennis Environmental Action, who are a sustainable energy community onto the SEC program that Dorin mentioned. So they are taking that kind of to the next level, and we realized that through the program of rolling out this kind of help and support for the warmer home scheme, that some people were falling in between two chairs. So if you weren't entitled to the warmer home scheme, but you also didn't have the funds or the savings to get anything else of the grant, you know, they're quite expensive. It's a little big investment in your home, but it's so worth it. But sometimes people just aren't there, they can't do it. So this new project is going to go out to certain areas in Ennis and insulate their attic. So CLDC are going to be covering the kind of helping with the applications, going out to the homes, to the contractors, applying for the grants themselves, the people just need to apply once that's out in the community, and then everything will kind of be done for them. Okay. And in terms of applying, how can people do so? So at the moment, it's not launched yet, so it's been April, slowly but surely, but

9:22people will be going out from Ennis and environmental action group, knocking on doors in certain areas, trying to see. And if people are eligible for the warmer homes, they'll help them with that. But those who fall in between that gap, they'll help them and they'll be invited then to apply. Okay. It'd be very beneficial to them. We just have 30 seconds left, or do you want to tell people about any key priorities that CLDC has for this year in terms of supporting communities that perhaps you haven't mentioned? Yeah. I think we've covered so many different things over the years, and we're looking at new things, and one of the things we're doing in Sycap is, you know, things like community gardens and doing more sort of work out. We have a helping key as well, so opening up the facilities and resources, and we're also looking at developing a site for a community park in Kilrush, which we hope to be developing or announcing later in the next few months, and that that will be a big initiative for CLDC working with Claire County Council and others in the Kilrush area to develop a new

10:27community facility in Kilrush. Okay. Brilliant stuff, and all extremely positive, Doreen Graham and Hannah Griffey. Thank you very much to both of you, and you and your colleagues, keep up the great work. And I love that you're saying. Thanks for popping into the studio to have a chat with me on Morning Focus.