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Community Services Programme
From Department of Rural and Community Development
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The Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports community -based organisations to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model and create employment opportunities for disadvantaged people.
It offers financial support to assist with the cost of hiring staff to community companies and co-operatives.
Funding is provided to community organisations as a fixed contribution towards the cost of employing a manager and/or an agreed number of full-time equivalent position (FTEs). The programme provides €19,033 for every FTE and €32,000 per manager working a 39-hour week. More than €47 million was allocated in 2020, supporting about 1,703 FTEs and 321 managers in 418 organisations.
As a result of the COVID-19 crisis the Department developed an additional 2020 Support Fund to assist CSP supported organisations to continue to retain their CSP supported employees. The funding was providing an additional once off payment, to assist with staffing costs, to cover a 12 week period from 26th March 2020 ensuring that they can pay their full time CSP supported employees a maximum of €350 net per week, with a proportionate amount for part time CSP supported employees.
Applicants must be not-for-profit social enterprises or businesses with sufficient capacity to undertake service delivery and management of staff.
They must also have sufficient financial resources and ability to generate adequate revenue and prepare a business plan.
There are three main types of projects funded under the Community Services Programme:
To qualify under the CSP you must be a social enterprise capable to generating income from your service. 70% of employees funded under the programme must be from one of the following groups:
Further information is available on the Pobal website.
Public consultation on the scope of the independent review of the Community Services Programme was conducted during late 2018 and feedback from the submissions received informed the Terms of Reference for the review.
Indecon International Economic Consultants were engaged to carry out the independent review which commenced in March 2019. Indecon undertook extensive stakeholder engagement with CSP supported organisations, CSP supported employees, Government Departments, Agencies and National Community and Voluntary organisations.
The Report sets out eleven key recommendations that the Department and Pobal, who administer the programme on behalf of the Department, will use to assist with the re-structuring of the programme. A High level Action Plan, prepared by the Department and Pobal accompanies the Indecon Report and sets out the proposed timeline for delivery of each phase.
To find out more about how to make an application or to learn more about the applications process please click the following link Community Services Programme
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