'Community Development Practical Approach\r'

'GROUP PRESENTATION ESSAY As pop out of ‘ corporation Development in Practice, we went on a field trip to two federation presidential terms, Tallaght fraternity Arts and St. Kevin’s Family vision Centre. The purpose of which was to count on at how each project invests the principles of conjunction reading as described by the Ad Hoc citizens committee (2008). We had to compute as a convention of 3 students which accommodated Samantha Hogan, Anthony Kelly and Elaine Vince-O’Hara, to put together a assort presentation on the project of our choice.We chose St. Kevin’s Family resort Centre as it is a basic partnership festering brass instrument which we believe eery residential district needs. St. Kevin’s Family option Centre St. Kevin’s Family preference Centre is a lodge musical arrangement and is ground in a local primary enlighten in Kilnamanagh, Tallaght, and whose remit covers the atomic numeral 18as of Kilnamanag h, Tymon North and Kingswood. Established in 1994, they were one of only three ‘pilot’ Family Resource Centres (FRC) funded with and with the Family Support Agency.The centre is managed by a self-imposed board of management of which 70% ar slew from the local fellowship and run by Grainne Begley, the Co-ordinator, Cynthia Moore, the Administrator and a large group of 25 volunteers for additional documentation. St. Kevin’s thrust a number of training rooms, counselling/ holistic therapy rooms, a young cafe and a union childcare centre. They reach an open door policy, where community members are at all times welcome to drop in and see whats happening in their community.They have quintet key areas of work; biotic community Education, Supporting Community and Voluntary Groups, Counselling ; adenine; Holistic therapy, child care and Youth pass water. St. Kevin’s Mission Statement: ‘St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre is a community org anisation whose mission is to turn about change finished the process of potency and support at family, various(prenominal) and community level. ’ St Kevin’s describe themselves as: ‘a thriving and integral part of the community increase structures in the area…. social inclusion organisation… concerned about the state in the community who…. are not participating in inn to their fullest potential’ (St. Kevin’s FRC nominate Plan 2010-2012). They work out of the places and principles of community study as described by the Ad Hoc charge (2008) as they strive towards social justice, equality and anti-discrimination through participation, empowerment and collective action to support individuals, families and their wider communities and this is evident end-to-end their work.They practice the principle of participation by aiming to figure the needs of the local community, enabling them to gain the skills necessary for full par ticipation: They do this through a community consultation process for their work plans and the prep of; community raising programmes, a counselling proceeds to help overcome many a(prenominal) issues including oppression, holistic therapies to supercharge individual puff up being and community childcare which provides people with the opportunity to enter and become empowered.St. Kevin’s practice the principles of empowerment as they: acknowledge value and material body on people’s lives and real experiences which is the basis of the community genteelness which they provide. They work with people to; embodiment an understanding of their reality and identify shipway to overcome them and build confidence and self-esteem through the provision of their counselling service and holistic therapies offered. St.Kevin’s practice the principles of collective action as they get together and build alliances with other groups, organisations and agencies in order t o wage hike key community objectives, they do this through their support of diverse user groups and networking with various agencies including; southeast capital of Ireland Community Platform (SDCP), Active Citizenship Together (ACT), South Dublin County Council (SDCC), the County Development board (CDB) This ‘process empowers the community to develop spick-and-span skills and be more pro-active in their own learning’. Impacts include empowerment of groups, sustaining their culture and development of partnership relationships between the Centre and new groups’. ‘There is a large increase in community activity’. Motherway, B (2006) St. Kevin’s practice the principles of social justice by building strategic alliances and encouraging active participation to create awareness of the work of the family resource centre, in order to bring about social change. They work with the community in developing appropriate responses to identified needs th rough consultation with the community and they provide pportunities to access community education for the purpose of achieving personal and community development. They build the capacity of the management committee and continue to build a strong community development organisation to ensure that resources are utilised to their maximum inwardness ‘provide a safe, inclusive, happy childcare adeptness where children can grow and develop in confidence, at that placeof support the family’ (St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre Work Plan 2010-2012) St.Kevin’s practice Equality ;amp; Anti Discrimination in acknowledging the diverse temperament of their local community, where 20% are lone arouses, 25% having no formal education, 10% have a disability, 8% are from an ethnic minority family and there is a high rate of un trade. They promote divagation and diversity, evidenced by their active role in developing a strategy to promote the consolidation of traveller s and ethnic minorities, which was put forward to the County Development Board for consideration.They also promote understanding and analysis of equality issues, and strategies to address them within communities through their community education programmes. Challenges Some of the current challenges faced by St. Kevin’s include: adapting to the impact of the recession including: trying to toy the needs of unemployed people accessing the service who are looking to up skill and or retrain, having to void the number of community education programmes due to cuts and people not engaging due to the social and scotch difficulties which are hindering their ability to participate.Successes As well as challenges they have had many successes, primarily the development and progression of a hugely successful and affordable community childcare centre, which started over twenty age ago as a two parent, parent and toddler group and grew through true grassroots community development †˜by the people, for the people’. To this mean solar day a weekly parent and toddler group are still going strong with up to 40 families taking part. Cynthia Moore, another success for the first time became involved in St. Kevin’s FRC as a participant.She went on to complete a community employment scheme in the centre after which she secured parttime paid employment as the administrator. She continued to participate on many community education courses and through empowerment she eventually gained the confidence to undertake a Leadership ;amp; Community Development microscope stage course which she successfully completed in 2011. Cynthia continues in her role of Administrator and she also volunteers as a ‘Rainbows’ facilitator, a peer mentoring programme aimed at supporting young people suffering varying degrees of ill fortune and loss.Cynthia has come full circle and is a big example of what community development and community education are about and of the outcomes it has the potential to achieve. Other successes include; many previous centre users coming choke off to help out in a voluntary capacity, their ability to provide support to and facilitate many diverse groups, continued provision of community education, which empowers members of the community to take charge of their lives and participate in their community and their ability to network with various agencies and take take up roles in devising strategies.Conclusion Over the last 18 years the centre has grown and adapted to the ever changing needs of the community and is now a thriving and integral part of the community development structures in the area. As we see it, by proceed to work out of the principles and practices of community development as described by the Ad Hoc Committee, St.Kevin’s Family Resource Centre will continue to achieve hard-hitting community development, overcome challenges faced and continue to have many more successes in the future. Bibliography: Ad Hoc Committee (2008) Towards Standards for Quality Community Work, Dublin Motherway, Brian (2006) the Role of Community Development in Tackling Poverty in Ireland, Dublin, fighting Poverty Agency St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre, Work Plan 2010-2012 Samantha Hogan Anthony Kelly Elaine Vince O’Hara 10th October 2012\r\n'