Minister O’Gorman announces €500,000 Community Integration Fund 2020

€500,000 made available to 113 local community projects nationwide
Almost every county to benefit from funding
Communities and community organisations can play a vital role in making sure that everyone in society is included and can feel like they belong

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman TD, today announced the 113 community projects around the country that will receive funding under the 2020 Communities Integration Fund. A total of almost €500,000 in grant funding has been provided this year. This is the fourth year of the Communities Integration Fund, bringing the total amount made available to date to over €2.0 million.

Announcing the outcome of the 2020 Communities Integration Fund, Minister O’Gorman said:

“The Communities Integration Fund provides communities with an opportunity to lead integration activities which reflect and support their own diversity. As we have seen throughout this pandemic, communities and community organisations can play a vital role in making sure that everyone in society is included and can feel like they belong. In these difficult times, we need to support these initiatives more than ever.”

Almost every county in Ireland will benefit from funding for locally run projects to support the integration of migrants. The projects granted funding are small community based projects. A maximum grant amount of €5,000 and a minimum grant amount of €1,000 is allocated to any single project. 336 applications were received this year with 113 projects successfully granted funding.

The Communities Integration Fund was first established in 2017 to implement the commitment under Action 51 of the Migrant Integration Strategy to support actions by local communities throughout Ireland to promote the integration of migrants and refugees.

The 2020 Communities Integration Fund was launched on the 19th of June this year. Minister O’Gorman would like to extend his thanks to all organisations who submitted an application and congratulate all those that have been successful. The process was highly competitive, with a large number of quality applications.

ENDS

Notes to the Editor:

Communities Integration Fund 2020: List of Approved Projects

Purpose of projects/activities

This call was open to local community based groups carrying out the following projects/activities:

Intercultural Awareness - Projects and events that bring host communities and migrant communities together to learn about and celebrate each other’s cultures and customs;
Combating Racism and Xenophobia – Interventions aimed at preventing racism and xenophobia among local communities;
Sport & Community Games - Projects that seek to facilitate local migrant integration and improve the mental and physical well-being of migrants by encouraging them to get involved in sport;
Arts - Projects that encourage migrants and local host communities to interact with each other through arts and crafts, music, dance, theatre and literature;
Other Community Events - Projects involving a more broad-based community event adapted to be more inclusive of migrants, e.g. a pre-existing Annual Fair to which migrant specific stalls, entertainment, etc., has been added;
Capacity Building - Projects with a social inclusion focus that seek to help particularly vulnerable groups of migrants overcome specific difficulties (e.g. parenting classes for young migrant parents);
Employment - Projects that offer advice on seeking employment and offer employment opportunities through training, sponsorship by local businesses and skills assessment;
Integration Research - Projects that identify local knowledge gaps and carry out local needs assessments so that local community resources for migrant integration can be utilised to the maximum benefit;
Food/Cuisine - Projects that promote interculturalism and integration through the sharing of different cuisines and cooking methods;
Education - Projects focused on the educational needs of migrants through provision of additional supports to help migrant children to maximise the benefit of their school attendance (e.g. homework clubs) and older migrants to develop their language skills and better orient themselves in Irish society;
Transportation - Projects that target immobility and social isolation among the migrant population due to an inability to drive or difficulties accessing public and private transport.

As this Fund is intended to support the integration of migrant and host communities, all applications had to demonstrate how they will involve both migrant and host communities in the activities proposed. The maximum grant amount that can be applied for was €5,000 and the minimum grant was €1,000.