Funding has been secured to establish a Traveller Community Development project in Clare.
A collaborative application to the Department of Rural and Community Development’s Pilot Project Community Development Fund led by Clare Local Development Company (CLDC) has been successful. The application was made on behalf of four organisations in Clare which include CLDC, Clare Women’s Network, Clare Public Participation Network and the HSE’s Mid-West Traveller Health Unit.
In the application, an urgent need for a Traveller specific organisation in Clare was stressed where effective methods of participation by 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.
More than 120 projects around the country applied for this funding and the Clare collaborative group are one of only seven successful applications to the one million euro fund.
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.
CEO of CLDC, Doirin Graham explained, “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’”.
Sarah Clancy of Clare PPN noted that members of the Traveller community in Ireland have in recent years made “huge strides in fields of education, literature, sports, music, politics, law and the art and she hopes that this fund will be a stepping stone towards equality for the Traveller community 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 the final details of the project will be finalised over the coming weeks and CLDC and their collaborating partners welcome people who would like more information to contact Darina Greene on 0879086561 or dgreene@cldc.ie.
