Press release
Community Call: Learning for the Future – Webinar
From Department of Rural and Community Development
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Rural and Community Development
Published on
Last updated on
Joe O’Brien TD Minster of State with responsibility for Community Development and Charities, yesterday (21st October), hosted a Community Call “Learning for the Future” webinar yesterday, which was attended by 220 participants and he took the opportunity to thank everyone for their role they played in the Community Call.
Co-hosted by NESC and the Department of Rural and Community Development, there was huge interest in the event which featured contributions from Local Authorities, the Community and Voluntary Sector, Age Friendly Ireland and panelists from Government Departments and the local Development Sector. There was robust discussion about the Community Call and how local collaboration between state and community organisations enabled an effective response during the worst of the pandemic, helping those most in need in our communities.
Minister O’Brien said:
“I was eager to have this event today because I feel it’s vital that we don’t just capture and retain the learnings from Community Call Programme but that we try to identify practical specific ways in our current and future work where we can implement these learnings or find new ways of doing things.
“The manner in which State agencies, community and voluntary groups and volunteers came together when we we’re facing a truly unprecedented challenge- perhaps the most difficult of our times – and worked efficiently and effectively together to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable during Covid was something extraordinary. We can and must harness that spirit of March and April last year where we were collaborative and determined and very practical about what needed to happen and open minded about how to do it.
“Yesterday’s event and the honest discussions around what worked and what could work better will help us focus our attention now on how the success of the initiative can be built upon, and how innovative aspects of the work can be replicated, going forward to continue to support people in our local communities.”
Dr. Larry O’Connell, Director of NESC, also welcomed the interest at the seminar. He stressed that:
“There are wider lessons from the experience of designing and implementing the Call that can help policy makers and service deliverers to tackle other challenges, such as climate change.”
Some of the key learnings from the NESC report (which can be found at this link: http://files.nesc.ie/nesc_secretariat_papers/No_22_CommunityCall.pdf)