by badminme | Mar 20, 2022 | Local Community Development Committee, Members News, PPN News, SPC for Social Development
Draft Clare PPN submissions to the Draft Clare County Development Plan
Update – April 5th, 2022: The public consultation process for the Clare County Development Plan 2023-2029 has now closed. Both of Clare PPN’s final submissions are available to download from the following page:
https://clareppn.ie/submissions-county-dev-plan-2023-2029/
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March 20th, 2022: Clare PPN has been participating in the process of creating a new County Development Plan for Clare since 2020. We held consultations, information sessions and calls for input to create submissions from our Environment and Social Inclusion Colleges at the Pre Draft Stage which concluded last year. The public consultation period on the Draft County Development Plan is now open and will close for submissions on March 28th. (If you want to make your own submission details on how to do it are here: https://clarecdp2023-2029.clarecoco.ie/make-a-submission/
While people and groups can and are encouraged to make individual submissions on matters that concern them, in Clare PPN we usually pool our resources to make collective submissions on the overall approaches we’d like taken in the County. You can read our proposed submissions below and your group contact should also have received them by email. if you are in a member group of either the environmental or social inclusion college of Clare PPN you can still send us any suggestions or additions but we need to get them before Thursday March 24th in order to add them and make sure we meet the deadline.
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Our environmental submission can be read here and if you have any comments or additions to it please email newsletter@clareppn.ie on or before Thursday March 24th.
CPPN- CEN Draft Submission to Draft Clare County Development Plan March 2022
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Our social inclusion submission can be read here and if you have any comments or additions to it please email admin@clareppn.ie on or before Thursday March 2th.
DRAFT Clare PPN Social Inclusion Submission to Clare County Development Plan
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sarah C
by badminme | Dec 10, 2021 | Local Community Development Committee, Members News, National, PPN News
Clare PPN invites you to an online discussion with researcher Dr Conor McCabe on creating an Anti-Poverty Strategy for Clare:
At this event which is being held to mark International Human Rights Day, author, academic and activist Dr Conor Mc Cabe will present a discussion document outlining the initial stages of a research project he has been carrying out for Clare PPN. In this event Dr McCabe will present his initial analysis of the policies at a national and local level which provide the framework under which the economic development of Clare is being conducted. An open discussion on whether this framework is suitable to deliver sustainable rural and urban livelihoods in Clare will follow with input invited from those in attendance.
You can read the discussion document here:
Towards an Anti-Poverty Strategy for Clare Discussion Document
The project will continue in early 2022 with a series of peer to peer interviews and ‘town hall style’ meetings where those affected by poverty in Clare as well as those providing state and charitable services in the county will be given the opportunity to input to this research. This project seeks to create a 5 year anti-poverty strategy for Clare based on the lived experiences of people encountering the various interlinked forms of poverty in the county. The project which is the first of its kind will run until May 2022 and is funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission under their Human Rights and Equality Grant Scheme 2021.
Dr. Conor McCabe is a researcher and author of Sins of the Father: the Decisions that Shaped the Irish Economy (2013), and Money (2018). He works with political, trade union, and community groups exploring the dynamics of theory and action for societal change.
Towards an Anti-Poverty Strategy for Clare Discussion Document
by badminme | Jul 15, 2021 | Current, Local Community Development Committee, Members News, National, PPN News
Clare PPN Submission to the consultation on the National Action Plan Against Racism:
July 14th 2021
Click on the link below to read our submission:
Clare-Public-Participation-Network-Submission-to-the-Consultation-on-a-new-Action-Plan-Against-Racism-July-2021
Clare Public Participation Network frequently makes submissions on National and Local Government Consultations. We do this by alerting our member groups to the consultation, offering to hold a consultation meeting and if there is interest from our groups, colleges or expert groups we work together to collaboratively create a submission. When compiling such submissions we also refer to priorities identified or motions passed by our member groups at Plenary meetings, previous Clare PPN submissions on relevant topics and most recently we also refer to the Wellbeing Vision Statements for Clare Created by our members in 2020.
by badminme | Jul 2, 2021 | Current, Local Community Development Committee, Members News, PPN News
June 25th 2021
Funding to establish Traveller Community Development Project Secured for Clare:
Clare PPN is delighted to announce that a collaborative application to the Department of Rural and Community Development’s Pilot Project Community Development Fund has been successful. This application was made on behalf of four organisations in Clare; Clare Local Development Company, Clare Women’s Network, Clare Public Participation Network and the HSE’s Mid-West Traveller Health Unit and endorsed by many other community and voluntary organisations around the county. Clare PPN’s involvement in this project stems from concerns raised by their Social Inclusion Member Groups who have sought ways to lend their collective weight to working effectively to improve the living conditions and wellbeing of the approximately 900 Travellers who are part of the community in Clare.
More than 120 projects around the country applied for this funding and the Clare collaborative group are pleased to have been one of seven successful applications to the One million euro fund. Doirin Graham, CEO of Clare Local Development Company welcomed the news saying that this much needed funding would secure a Traveller specific initiative. ‘We want to ensure that Travellers are involved at every level of this project and are front and centre in the decision making roles. With our organisations’ support we can lend the institutional and governance guidance to help to get the project up and running and to support it until it is on a solid footing’.
The application itself highlighted the urgent need for a Traveller-specific organisation in Clare where effective methods of participation for the Traveller community in the decisions that affect their lives have not been established. One of the issues for the Traveller community in Clare is accessing funding available for training, mentorships, social enterprises, educational and political advocacy. Without a dedicated organisation there is no entity working with the community to support them to identify these needs and to apply for funding to respond to them. It is this gap in targeted supports that prompted the four collaborating organisations to apply for this fund. It is their explicit aim that over the proposed three years of the scheme the Traveller Community Development Organisation will become fully independent and Traveller –led and develop a strong grassroots voice to address social exclusion, poverty, and to advocate for Traveller’s Human Rights.
On hearing the news, Sarah Clancy of Clare PPN, noted that ‘in recent years Ireland has seen members of the Traveller community against all odds making huge strides in fields of education, literature, sports, music, politics, law and the arts even while the community as a whole experiences structural and direct discrimination with extremely damaging effects within Irish society’. She hopes that this fund will be one building block in the path towards equality for the Traveller community in Clare and that it will be able to build on previous work done by Ennis Community Development Project, the Traveller community themselves and other such organisations in Clare”
It is hoped that full details of the funding stream and timeline for commencement of this work will be agreed with the Department of Rural and Community Development over the coming weeks and CLDC and their collaborating partners invite anyone who would like more information about this project to contact Darina Greene on 0879086561 or dgreene@cldc.ie
Clare PPN is very grateful for support, advice, friendship and assistance provided by those involved with the Irish Traveller Movement, Pavee Point, Tipperary Rural Traveller Project, CENA, the Traveller Mediation Service and the St Stephen’s Green Trust.
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Clare Local Development Company through its SICAP program aims to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality in Clare through supporting communities and individuals using community development approaches, engagement and collaboration.
https://cldc.ie
Clare PPN is a network of community, voluntary, environmental and social inclusion groups from Clare. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the formal participation by the community sector in Clare County Council’s policy formation structures.
www.clareppn.ie
Clare Women’s Network supports and encourages the coming together of women’s groups and individual women in Clare. Its work is guided by women’s equality, inclusion, community development and feminist principles.
https://nccwn.org/project/nccwn-clare/
The Traveller Health Unit (THU) is underpinned by the social determinants of health that are at the root of Traveller health inequalities. This approach enables a holistic approach to health and wellbeing.
www.hse.ie
by badminme | May 6, 2021 | Current, Local Community Development Committee, Members News, PPN News
Welcome your new Clare PPN Representatives:
Congratulations to Cornelia Wahli, Christy Sinclair and Collette Bradley we look forward to working with you all.
We are delighted to let you know that we received nominations for each of three representative roles we advertised to our member groups on April 20th 2021. We are most grateful to all groups who nominated and in particular to the three candidates who have come forward to represent their communities through Clare PPN.
The vacant Environmental Seat on Clare PPN’s Secretariat will be taken up by Cornelia Wahli who was nominated by Clare Environmental Network and who also represents Clare PPN on Clare County Council’s Local Community Development Committee. As part of the Secretariat Cornelia will join 9 other community representatives to help to run Clare PPN on behalf of its member groups between plenary meetings.
The second environment seat- on Clare County Council’s Rural Development Forum goes to Christy Sinclair – nominated by Clare Environmental Network. Christy was one of the founder members of Clare PPN, his interests are environmental sustainability and social justice and he will make a valuable contribution to the ongoing work of the forum.
The third and final seat in this set of elections was for a Social Inclusion Representative to sit on Clare’s Local Community Development Committee and this seat goes to Collette Bradley of Shannon Family Resource Centre. Collette’s experience in community development and support for marginalised communities will be of great value to the LCDC.
We are so grateful to all who came forward, the ratification of these seats will take place at our plenary meeting which is taking place on May 11th online (contact admin@clareppn.ie if you would like to attend this meeting). Following the plenary we will write to each committee chair notifying them of our nominations and this will complete the formal nomination process.
You can read more about each new representative here:
Cornelia Wahli:
Cornelia’s participation in and membership of several environmental groups, including CEN – Clare Environmental Network, emerges from a deep-felt belief that the current man-made climate crisis, which has lead to global warming and loss of biodiversity, can be healed, but only with individual, societal, corporate and political input and action.
Cornelia lives an organic lifestyle without chemicals in her kitchen, utility room, bathroom and garden using vinegar, bread soda and lemon juice instead, sparingly. She believes that a lifestyle change with similar intensity like that imposed by covid-19 is necessary to assure and ensure a continued ‘food and clean water supply’ for now and the future. Cornelia’s vision is of an ‘Organic County Clare’ that is organic in public spaces, in private gardens as well as in agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, silviculture and arboriculture. Such an ‘organic approach’ can facilitate the protection of the environment welcoming diversity of biological life-forms to flourish and allowing our soil, water and air to return to their natural clean state. Cornelia would like to be a voice for the natural world, a healthy and nurturing environment that is capable of feeding and supporting humans as well as fauna and flora with sustainable development a core value. Cornelia also represents Clare PPN’s member groups as the Environmental Representative for Clare PPN on Clare’s Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) since autumn 2020.
Christy Sinclair:
Christy Sinclair was one of the founding members of Clare PPN. He previously served as a Secretariat member and as part of the finance subcommittee. He specialises in the installation and certification of photo-valtic systems and is a keen environmentalist, rock climber and greyhound adopter. He has been involved with a number of community groups in Clare including the Burren Eco Tourism Network and Clare Bus where he served as a board member. His interests are in securing a ‘living wage’ for those working in Clare and ensuring that communities are takings steps towards sustainable energy use. He will bring all these interests to represent Clare PPN’s member groups on the Rural Development Forum.
Collette Bradley:
For the past 6 years Colette Bradley has been the coordinator of Shannon Family Resource Centre and is committed to the delivery and further development of services and activities for the local community. She also recognises the need for more community services for Shannon and the surrounding areas. Prior to Colette’s Coordination position in Shannon she worked in the Community & Voluntary Sector for 12 years based in Ennis.
Colette was a voluntary member of a number of committees over the years including the group which oversaw the establishment of a community crèche and a resource centre, now North West Clare Family Resource Centre, in Ennistymon.
Colette is committed to working towards a more equal society and recognises social inclusion, equal opportunities and environmental protection as key building blocks to the achievement of a fairer and more progressive society.
She feels privileged to call beautiful North Clare her home living in Lisdoonvarna and prior to that in Kilfenora since moving to Co. Clare from Co. Wicklow in 1998.
You can read more here about the Rural Development Strategy here:
https://www.clarecoco.ie/services/community/rural-development/strategy/
And more here about the Local Community Development Committee:
https://www.clarecoco.ie/services/community/lcdc/
by badminme | Apr 20, 2021 | Local Community Development Committee, Members News, PPN News
Clare PPN would like to give notice of election for the following position:
Social Inclusion representative on the Local Community Development Committee (LCDC)
The Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) is comprised of Council Officials, Elected Councillors, and various business and community representatives. Among other things LCDC has the job of developing and overseeing the community elements of Clare County Council’s 6 year-long Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP). This is an important committee for Clare PPN and its members and we have 5 seats on it. The vacancy is for a social inclusion seat and we would encourage nominations from people who do frontline work (either voluntary or professional) in following areas; combatting social exclusion, poverty reduction, anti-discrimination policy making, community development, intercultural and anti-racism work. This committee meets 5- 6 times per year and the successful nominee will also be required to participate on occasion in other networking, consultation and policy making events with member groups and the Clare PPN secretariat.
Election Rules and Process:
- Only groups who were members of Clare PPN on Tuesday, 20th April 2021 are eligible to participate in these elections,
- Only groups who are members of the Social Inclusion Pillar can participate in these elections,
- No person can represent Clare PPN on more than one external committee or body,
- Each member group may nominate one candidate and may cast one vote. (It is each group’s named contact person’s responsibility to consult with their own members regarding this).
How to nominate a candidate:
Groups wishing to nominate a candidate must seek their consent first and then must send an email to admin@clareppn.ie with the following information on or before Tuesday, 4th May 2021 at 5pm:
- Name of Community Group.
- Position for which they are nominating a candidate.
- Name of proposed nominee.
- Contact details of proposed nominee.
- A short paragraph (up to 200 words) detailing the nominees’ suitability and experience for the role- this will be shared on social media and on our website in advance of voting.
- A photo of your nominee which we may share with our members and social media followers.
Clare PPN will confirm receipt of nominations by email. Following the close of nominations Clare PPN will circulate details of candidates to our members and online and voting will be open until Tuesday, 11th May at 1pm. No votes will be accepted after this time. The name of the successful candidate will be announced for ratification at Clare PPN’s plenary meeting which will take place that evening at 7pm.
NB: Even if you have nominated a candidate, you will still need to cast your vote to support their election.
