Community Development

CHAPTER 20 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The syllabus states that students should know how the local community is affected by local business. Students should know how community development depends on community initiatives. It specifies Leader programmes, County Enterprise Boards, FAS, and community enterprise schemes.

Definition: community development refers to efforts by local communities to improve their local economies by developing self – reliance and entrepreneurship amongst local people. (this is also the aim of community development) For too long, local communities have looked to central government and foreign firms to provide employment for them.

Features of Viable Communities and Reasons why Community Development is Important.  Jobs = less emigration and migration.  Increased wealth.  Leads to better infrastructure  New businesses loyal to the area.  Halts social decay (crime drugs etc.)  More people = more services (shopping centres, leisure centres, doctors, bank etc.)  Local pride.

Process of Community Development Basic steps: 1. A meeting of people unite to tackle a problem. These people could be community leaders or interested groups. 2. Organisation (could be called a Community Development Association). 3. Plan. Identify problems and goals 4. A local resource audit 5. Projects identified and prioritised 6. Look for assistance from outside organisations. 7. Finance.

Examples of Community Development Projects  Consumer Co-operatives. Supermarkets in bigger towns take money out of smaller ones.  Credit Unions.  Skills training programmes  Community resource centre  Child care service  Tidy Towns committee  Developing tourism (surfing, archaeological tourism)

Obstacles  Lack of business skills (planning, marketing, management) and experience in an area  Finance  Planning permission  Local disagreement

Agencies which can help Community Development 1. Leader Plus. This is a programme set up by the EU to help offset the effects of EU restrictions on agricultural produce. It is administered by the Department of Agriculture and is aimed at rural towns and areas. It gives grants to help set up small businesses. Over €300 million has been spent in Ireland up to 2006. It will give funding for the following:  Tourism development  Craft enterprises  Primary production enterprises  Feasibility studies  Local environment initiatives

2. FAS Community Enterprise Programme. It helps by:  Providing training and advice for start ups.  Giving advice in recruitment of staff.  Training staff  Giving grants for feasibility studies.  Grants for enterprises that help long-term unemployed

3. County Enterprise Boards. There are 35 of them. Funded by the Local Authority. They identify local resources which can be developed. They can give grants up to £60,000 towards capital costs and €6000 for feasibility studies. They provide a mentoring service. They only help small businesses (up to 10 employees).

4. Area Partnership Companies. These operate in the same way as CEBs but in urban areas. An example is the Ballymrn Partnership.

How Businesses can help Community Development  Jobs (direct, spin-off and tertiary)  Profits can be reinvested in other businesses (Glen Dimplex)  Improvements in infrastructure  Increase in population and wealth= more services  Encourages others to become entrepreneurs  Socially responsible business will help the community (parks, sponsorship etc)