County Sligo LEADER Partnership Company welcome increased LEADER allocation for 2021 & 2022
(Friday March 12th 2021) County Sligo LEADER Partnership Company CLG, a member of the Irish Local Development Network (ILDN) who represent the 35 Local Development Companies (LDCs) who deliver the LEADER Programme nationally, have welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Rural & Community Development Heather Humphreys TD, and Minister for Agriculture Food & Marine Charlie McConalogue TD, of an increased allocation of €70 million in 2021 & 2022 for the LEADER Programme.
Welcoming the announcement, John Feerick SLPC CEO said; “County Sligo LEADER Partnership Company and ILDN have been calling recently for the Government to utilise funding available from the EU for Rural Development, for the purposes of LEADER. As the deliverers of LEADER in County Sligo we are greatly encouraged by today’s announcement of an increased allocation of €70 million to the end of 2022.”
“The LEADER Programme offers the ideal vehicle for the delivery of development funding to Rural Areas in the most effective manner. The allocation of this increased funding will deliver critical stimulus to Rural areas to help drive the post Covid recovery. Furthermore, the funding announced today will ensure that more vital projects in Sligo are focused on climate change, digital transformation, remote working and enterprise development can be progressed in our rural communities throughout the country to meet the expectations of the EU in terms of the requirements of its Recovery funding criteria.”
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Grow your own Herbs!
This wonderful project provides each participant with their own free Herb Kit consisting of seed tray, plant pots, identifier tags, compost (organic) and 5 varieties of herbs.
Also included is a step-by-step guide to planting seeds.
The project will be hosted by The Organic Centre who have long term experience in training and community garden development.
To apply for the project:
Contact: Geri Bruce 086 4183717 or email gbruce@sligoleader.com
*Priority will be given to those in receipt of a Social Welfare payment.
The Community Garden project is delivered through the Social Inclusion Community and Activation Programme (SICAP). SICAP promotes social inclusion for communities and individuals at risk of social exclusion.
Grow your own flowers!
This wonderful project provides each participant with their own free Flowerpot Kit consisting of seed tray, plant pots, identifier tags, compost (organic) and 5 varieties of flowering plants.
Also included is a step-by-step guide to planting seeds.
The project will be hosted by The Organic Centre who have long term experience in training and community garden development.
To apply for the project:
Contact: Geri Bruce 086 4183717 or email gbruce@sligoleader.com
*Priority will be given to those in receipt of a Social Welfare payment.
The Community Garden project is delivered through the Social Inclusion Community and Activation Programme (SICAP). SICAP promotes social inclusion for communities and individuals at risk of social exclusion.
This course will be offered to 10 groups, or collection of groups in an area that are interested in making their community and local area more biodiversity friendly. The course will upskill and teach volunteers how to protect and enhance the biodiversity of their local areas and provide them with the tools to develop their own plan to support long term improvement of their area’s biodiversity.
Our aim is to encourage a whole community approach to creating awareness and building capacity for the protection and conservation of local biodiversity. This training will help you to identify projects for environmental protection and conservation. We would like to hear from all sorts of organisations and groups across County Sligo.
We have capacity to support 10 areas or groups and would encourage groups such as Tidy Towns groups, community development groups, men’s sheds, sporting groups, residents’ associations and any other interested groups who are looking to improve their local biodiversity to get involved.
Apply here
Join the Great Sligo Bake Off!
This initiative is aimed at families looking to start baking or improve their baking skills
It will be over 4 weeks via Zoom. Starts Wednesday 14th of April from 5pm to 7pm and will run every Wednesday after that for 4 weeks with end date being 5th of May.
Priority to those unemployed / in receipt of Social Welfare payment.
To take part contact:
Karen Tonry 087 687 2777
Email: ktonry@sligoleader.com
We are thrilled to launch our new 8 week programme to coincide with International Women’s Day.
Starts 21st April 2021!
It will be a FREE 8 week programme solely for Women- via Zoom
*Priority given to those unemployed/in receipt of social welfare
To join: Contact Karen on 087 687 2777
Email: ktonry@sligoleader.com
Sligo LEADER Partnership Company CLG are pleased to announce a number of new directors to the Board of Directors:
“We are delighted to welcome our new directors to the board, and we also want to acknowledge the tremendous contribution of the outgoing directors who were instrumental in the initiation and development of so much positive work in communities throughout Sligo over the last number of years.”
Fintan Kennedy Chairperson of Sligo LEADER Partnership Company CLG
The new directors will be joined by existing directors of the board Cllr. Thomas Healy, Cllr. Donal Gilroy, Amada McCloat, Janette Gillen, Paul Tolan, Noreen Cremin, Ciaran Kerins, Joan Mullen, Fintan Kennedy (Chairperson) and Seamus McCormack (Secretary).
A major training programme aimed at enhancing innovation and creativity among Sligo communities has just been launched and it is set to bring exciting benefits to local towns and villages.
The Innovating Communities Designing Our Future Programme (ICP), will focus on teaching participants skills that will help solve problems that occur in local communities. 150 Sligo people are set to participate in the programme.
Fintan Kennedy, Chairman of Sligo LEADER Partnership Company, said
“The programme will equip people with new skills and tools to respond to issues in their communities. We are teaming up with local development companies in Leitrim, Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth to deliver this programme along the border. The approach will be solution based and will prove attractive to people actively involved in community life in a wide variety of ways.
The training project will deliver innovative and creative training modules that will meet current challenges while building capabilities to cope with future opportunities, by adopting new techniques and increasing problem-solving capability and confidence.
Community and voluntary groups and individuals in Sligo will have the opportunity to be part of the 900 participants in this regional project scheduled to be trained over the course of project. This volume of training will leave a legacy in all six participating regions, equipping them to be better able to overcome future challenges. The training approach will be extremely useful in tackling the often difficult problems facing communities and individuals today, by understanding the human needs involved, by re-framing the problem in practical ways, by creating many ideas in brain-storming sessions and by adopting a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing.”
Icecream Architecture, who will deliver this training programme in each of the six areas, have vast experience of delivering similar training programmes over the years and are looking forward to meeting and working with trainees in the weeks and months ahead.
There can be little doubt that a regional approach to skills development of this nature has the potential to provide increased opportunity over local approaches. The challenges of an impending BREXIT and the impact of a pandemic like COVID-19, climate transition and how our communities and businesses respond to such important issues will no doubt feature as training topics.
This training is about working smarter and will employ a ‘person centred design’ process where groups and individuals are helped identify topics important to their community or business and the training support will be provided to work with people to help them explore ideas and best possible solutions. The process will provide a high level of support to help community groups and would-be innovators move more confidently and creates a process for the discovery of community needs, idea generation and the testing of solutions.
The scale of the project across the six Southern Border counties is significant, and the approach represents an important skills development initiative to respond to the current challenges border communities face at this time.
To register for more information or join the training, please visit www.innovating.ie
We wish to acknowledge the project funding being provided under the LEADER Programme, the Department of Rural and Community Development under the National Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 and the European agricultural fund for rural development 2014-2020.
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County Sligo LEADER Partnership CLG,
Hanson Building, Doorly Park, Sligo F91 P7N2
Sligo Town: Pearse House, 3/4 Pearse Road, Sligo F91 K0VC
Ballymote: Lord Edward Street, Ballymote, Sligo F56NX94