Community Development Sub Group

The community development sub group of the Swords Strategic Partners Network consists of representatives from the following agencies Fingal LEADER Partnership, Fingal County Council – Community Section, Swords Community Policing Forum, Swords Community Gardai and Swords Tidy towns. The group’s focus is to encourage local Swords community members to become more active in their local area and to contribute positively to the local community.

In October 2009 the sub-group held a Café Networking Event in the Applewood area of Swords. The event aimed to encourage residents in the Applewood area to become involved in existing residents associations or starting up new ones. Due to the success of the initial Café Networking Event in 2009 there is a follow up event being held on Saturday 27th February 2010.

Family Support, Employment and Adult Education

This group is representative of Fingal LEADER Partnership, Department of Social & Family Affairs, FAI, Homestart, Fingal County Council, Co. Dublin VEC, Fingal Citizen Information Centre, FAS and the Swords Community. Programmes delivered by this group in 2009 included the Men’s Pitstop Programme: a 3 day a week programme incorporating a Jobs Club, positive mental health inputs, money management, volunteering and football. Participants received certification under the FAI for coaching and refereeing and outcomes included 6 participants moving on to employment, a range of football related after schools programmes supported and enhanced family and community activities in the area.

A part-time Carers Programme was delivered as a partnership initiative between Co. Dublin VEC, FAS and Dept. of Social & Family Affairs. 12 carers in the community were provided with support to assist them in looking after their loved ones, in some cases enabling families to continue to care for family members in the home environment and avoid long term residential care. There is a long waiting list for further training for carers and this will be addressed in 2010.

Additional plans for 2010 include information talks on a range of topics from ‘Surviving the Recession’ to ‘Positive Parenting’. If there is a topic that you feel your community would benefit from, this would potentially indicate that others would too so please let us know. You can contact Noreen on 01-8020484 or by email on ncolgan@fingalleaderpartnership.ie and your suggestions will be brought to the working group for exploration.