The author of the most penetrating book written in recent years on the Irish health service has given CDPs a ringing endorsement in a 7-minute interview on RTE's Drivetime.
Sara Burke has described the work that CDPs do as exceptional value for money and she paid tribute to volunteers' involvement and the ability of projects to do a great many things with very limited resources. While focusing chiefly on CDPs, Sara also drew attention to equally good work done by drugs projects, Family Resource Centres and a range of others. Her interview was broadcast on Thursday last, September 24th, and Sara has just published a written report on CDPs on her blog.
‘Changing Ireland’ works to promote the work of Community Development Projects (CDPs) each of which is locally and independently-managed. There are 180 CDPs and they are funded by the government’s Community Development Programme.
• Have an anti-poverty, anti-exclusion focus and promote the participation of people experiencing poverty and exclusion at all levels of the project.
• Involve representatives of groups which experience poverty and social exclusion within their management structures.
There are currently 180 Community Development Projects (CDPs) and 10 support agencies funded under the Community Development Programme. There were just 15 CDPs in 1990.
Some CDPs manage community centres and are responsible for (or, indeed, the catalyst for) bringing in multi-million-euro funding annually from a range of sources.
Other CDPs may belong to an umbrella group running a community centre. In both cases, the CDPs are expected to focus on members of the community who experience the most disadvantage and are the most vulnerable.
1990 - Community Development Programme established and 15 projects funded by the end of the year. The Programme was set up in recognition of the role of community development in tackling poverty and disadvantage, something that was common in Ireland in 1990. The Combat Poverty Agency and later other organisations are appointed as support agencies for the local projects.
1994 - Family Resource Centre Programme established and the number of projects in this programme also slowly expands to 10 centres by the end of the year.
1994 - Core-Funded Groups Programme (well, it actually had a longer title, but this is what it was known as) was established and 20 projects received funding.
2001 - The umbrella of the Community Development Support Programmes (CDSPs) comes into being, the aim being to bring about greater cohesion. There is great fanfare as it brings together nearly 200 projects funded under the Community Development Programme, the Family Resource Centre Programme and the Core-Funded Groups Programme. Mighty!
2003 - 15 new projects are set up, bringing the number of Community Development Projects to 122. The number of Core-Funded Groups around the country stands at 48. A review is organised by Minister Éamon Ó Cuiv of the community and voluntary sector programmes and agencies funded by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. And from now on, CDPs must get their workplans endorsed by City/County Development Boards. In most instances, this involved CDPs simply informing CDBs (yes, the acronyms can be confusing) about their work. One plus was that local authorities came to better understand the work of CDPs, and of the Programme itself. On the other hand, the process added to the workload of often resource-stretched local projects.
2004 - The CDSPs umbrella term becomes obsolete as the 48 Core-Funded Groups are re-named Community Development Projects. With all projects now known as CDPs, life becomes simpler (if only there hadn’t been so many changes since 1990). By now, the number of Community Development Projects in the Community Development Programme stands at 170 (there were only 15 in the beginning). Until now, the programmes have continued to grow and remain autonomous projects based in local communities receiving central funding support from the state through the new Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Regarding the support structures, the number of Regional Support Agencies is to be reduced from 13 to 6. Meanwhile, more Specialist Support Agencies have been set up.
2005 – Ten new CDPs are announced, however their autonomy is limited since the administrative work in running the new projects is farmed out to other existing local projects or organisations. In this way, the ‘hosting’ model is born.
2006 – As part of the Government’s Decentralisation Programme, the Community Development Unit of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs relocate to Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo in August. Staff turnover is significant. Minister of State, Noel Ahern, announces funding of €250,000 to employ extra staff in 14 CDPs. The new National Development Plan (NDP) includes reference to the Community Development Programme, which is viewed as a positive development by the thousands of people who are actively committed to the Programme’s aims.
2007 – The General Election results in the appointment of a Pat Carey as the new Minister of State for Community Affairs (while Noel Ahern moves to another Department). Minister Éamon Ó Cuiv retains the overall ministry. No new CDPs have been established for 2 years. In the meantime, new communities have sprung up, new estates have been built and the population of the Republic has expanded and changed demographically. Another review of the Programme is announced and submissions are invited, including from the public.
2008– A half-dozen projects and volunteers involved in CDPs won national awards for their Community Development work. Contracts with the Regional Support Agencies were not renewed and they were phased out/cut. The project representatives on the National Advisory Committee resigned. A new Minister of State was appointed, John Curran, from Clondalkin in Dublin. He is responsible for Community Affairs and for the National Drugs Strategy. He travelled the country visiting quite a number of projects for himself. Check out the news page of this website for more details on 2008 developments.
What is Community Development? Very briefly, Community Development seeks to challenge the causes and effects of poverty and inequality and to offer new opportunities to those lacking choice, power and resources. Community Development empowers people and involves them in making changes they identify to be important and which put to use and develop their skills, knowledge and experience. Community Development is about collective action.