Community Forum
After a year of intensive hard work by its voluntary management committee, Sligo County Community Forum is proud to confirm that there are now almost 500 community and voluntary sector groups affiliated, making it the largest representative body for community and voluntary sector groups in the county.
It is estimated that at least 5,000 community activists and volunteers in the county are now linked into the County Community Forum through their organisations affiliation. The Office of Community and Enterprise has provided both advisory and administrative support to the Forum and has developed a number of projects in conjunction with its voluntary management committee.
It is estimated that at least 5,000 community activists and volunteers in the county are now linked into the County Community Forum through their organisations affiliation. The Office of Community and Enterprise has provided both advisory and administrative support to the Forum and has developed a number of projects in conjunction with its voluntary management committee.
Representational Activities: Local, Regional and National
The 22 members of the management group have met on a monthly basis throughout 2005 and several subgroups have committed time to specific activities including the production of a newsletter, production of an updated community directory, development of the five area Fora, organising conferences and seminars, recruitment of a subgroup. Forum members have also participated in the County Development Board, four Local Authority Strategic Policy Committees, Sports & Recreation Partnership, County Childcare Committee, County Heritage Forum, Regional Drugs Taskforce, Play Advisory Forum, Social Inclusion Measures group and PEACE II Taskforce. Two members of the Sligo Forum were elected to the executive of the National Forum and ensure that the local forum is up-to-date on events at national level.
Strategic Planning Session
In early February 2005 the Forum Management Committee held a think in residential to re prioritize goals and actions for 2005/2006. A work plan was devised detailing a series of actions to be undertaken. The Forum also reviewed its representation particularly in relation to the social inclusion cluster/sectoral interests and set about ensuring that, in addition to Traveller and Disability Group representatives, the management committee would include representatives from youth groups, groups supporting refugees and asylum seekers and older persons groups. Following on this, representatives were sought from Sligo Youth Platform, Diversity Sligo and the Older Persons Parliament (who nominated a representative from local active age groups).
Forum representatives also took an active part in an event organised to review the County Development Board Strategy in May and ensured that a number of the issues identified at their own residential were included in the Strategy most significantly rural development, childcare, social inclusion and amenities for young people.Research, Seminars and Training
The Forum in partnership with the Office of Community and Enterprise and the County Development Board has conducted an inventory of the community and voluntary sector in the county. Information was collated on general activities; sectors and areas; the level and nature of volunteerism, the main sources of funding etc. This database was complete in 2005 and the findings are currently being analyzed for publication in early 2006
In April the Forum hosted a very successful seminar entitled Securing Fairness and Well-Being in a Land of Plenty in the Sligo Park Hotel to promote awareness of social inclusion in the county amongst community and voluntary sector activists. Those present were addressed by Fr Sean Healy and Brigid Reynolds of the CORI Justice Commission.
Two members of the Forum are currently participating in the ICBAN (Irish Central Border Corridor Network -Cross Border Body) initiative Joining up Development Programme. This is a year long programme examining strategic issues of relevance to policy makers in the ICBAN region.
A newsletter was produced by the management committee in August demonstrating some of their activities.
In April the Forum hosted a very successful seminar entitled Securing Fairness and Well-Being in a Land of Plenty in the Sligo Park Hotel to promote awareness of social inclusion in the county amongst community and voluntary sector activists. Those present were addressed by Fr Sean Healy and Brigid Reynolds of the CORI Justice Commission.
Two members of the Forum are currently participating in the ICBAN (Irish Central Border Corridor Network -Cross Border Body) initiative Joining up Development Programme. This is a year long programme examining strategic issues of relevance to policy makers in the ICBAN region.
A newsletter was produced by the management committee in August demonstrating some of their activities.
Establishment of Area Forum: Creating Community Power through Knowledge and Information Project
In August the Forum, with the support of the Office of Community and Enterprise commenced an intensive project in order to improve communications between local areas community groups and the management group of the County Community Forum.
From September to December 2005 over 20 area Fora meetings were held in the five electoral areas of the County. Funding was accessed under Peace II’s Active Citizenship measure to build the capacity of the area foras to participate in policy- making locally, regionally and nationally. This work was guided by a steering committee made up of Forum representatives from each electoral area and the Office of Community and Enterprise. The priority for 2006 is to develop these structures.
From September to December 2005 over 20 area Fora meetings were held in the five electoral areas of the County. Funding was accessed under Peace II’s Active Citizenship measure to build the capacity of the area foras to participate in policy- making locally, regionally and nationally. This work was guided by a steering committee made up of Forum representatives from each electoral area and the Office of Community and Enterprise. The priority for 2006 is to develop these structures.
Recruitment of Worker
The recruitment process for the Community Forum Support Worker commenced at the end of September 2005. The worker will be part-time and is employed by Sligo County Council and managed by a steering committee made up of the Community Forum and Sligo County Council.
Community and Voluntary Sector Research Project
The findings of research into the community and voluntary groups in County Sligo reveals a very vibrant sector engaged in a very broad range of activities ranging from community development, youth work, sports and recreation, arts and culture, heritage, enterprise development, support for the elderly, environmental and numerous other activities. The research, commissioned by the Directorate of Community and Enterprise, was aimed at supporting the County Community Forum to obtain a current profile of the sector with a view to publishing a directory of active groups in the County. Meehan and Tully and Associates conducted an extensive survey of groups in the county from the months of July 2005 to December 2005 under the direction of a steering committee. Preliminary analysis of findings based on the returns of 493 eligible groups revealed the following characteristics.
- The sector has generated job opportunities in the County providing employment for 1391 people or almost 6% of the current population at work. This figure obviously does not reflect the amount of voluntary workers engaged in community and voluntary sector activities.
- There are very few co-operatives or trusts in the sector. The majority of organisations are associations or committees (72%) and only 24% are limited companies.
- The majority of groups (77%) hold an annual general meeting and over half have a constitution.
- There are significant numbers of people in the County involved in community and voluntary activity. Most groups have over 16 members with 14% or 65 groups having over 100 members plus. Some respondents were unsure of the total membership. Boards of management generally comprised 1-10 members.
- The age profile of the sector and in particular the Boards of Management is heavily weighted in favour of the 41-64 age-group - only 5% of groups reported having persons under 21 involved in boards of management. 26% reported having people over 65 involved.
- When asked to indicate which electoral area the group was located in the breakdown was as follows: Dromore 48 groups; Ballymote 114 groups; Tubbercurry 52 groups; Sligo/Strandhill 132 groups; Sligo/Drumcliffe 119 groups.
- Funding is sourced in the following ways: fund raising (54%); local state bodies (27%); voluntary contributions (27%); membership fees (23%). Significantly only 5% or 24 groups reported accessing EU funding.
- 24% of groups stated that they are /have been involved in cross border activity.
- 77% of groups stated that they would like to recruit more volunteers and would utilise the services of a volunteer centre to recruit volunteers and receive training and support. Currently 15% of groups have a volunteer policy.
A directory with details of all of the groups will be published in 2006. Funding to complete this project has been received from the Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Cohesion Fund and Sligo Leader Partnership.
