Clare County Council and the Clare Local Community Development Committee are inviting applications for funding under a new €2m nationwide capital grants scheme for disadvantaged urban and rural areas announced by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.
The Communities Facilities Scheme will run initially from July 2017 to December 2017 and is focused on providing small-scale capital grants to help grass roots community projects get underway or take the next step towards completion.
The Scheme is being administered locally by the Clare Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) along with the Municipal Districts under the remit of Clare County Council and will provide capital funding of up to a maximum of €1,000 per project, for projects falling under a number of areas, including development/renovation of community centres, community amenities, youth clubs, sports/recreation facilities, improvements to town parks and common areas and spaces, and Creative Ireland Programme 2017-2022 projects.
Monica Meehan, Senior Executive Officer, Rural Development, explained, “The aim of the Scheme is to enhance communities, address disadvantage and improve social cohesion at a local level by providing access to small-scale capital grants.”
“It will operate in a complementary manner with other schemes or programmes being operated in communities, including in particular, the SICAP (Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme), a recast RAPID (Revitalising Areas by Planning, Investment and Development) and CLÁR (Ceantair Laga Árd Riachtanais) Programmes, adding value to those and other front-line schemes.
“It will also seek to address some of the difficulties local community groups face very often in terms of accessing small scale levels of funding to match their own fundraising efforts, in order to get community projects off the ground,” added Ms. Meehan.
Applications are now being invited for funding under this Scheme. Match-funding from other sources is not a requirement for application approval.
Application forms and scheme guidelines may be downloaded from www.clarecoco.ie. The deadline for receipt of applications to Communities Facilities Scheme, Rural Development, Clare County Council, Áras Contae an Chláir, New Road, Ennis, Co. Clare, is 4.00 p.m. on Friday 30th June 2017.