Service
Funding Local Community Staff
From Department of Rural and Community Development
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The Community Services Programme (CSP) provides a fixed contribution towards hiring additional staff for organisations to meet local service gaps and provide access to services and facilities that would otherwise generally be unavailable.
Three strands are supported under the programme:
- Community Halls and Facilities (CSP Strand 1 and 1s) - The CSP helps ensure that community halls and facilities are open and accessible on a day-to-day basis in local settings and operate on a social enterprise model. The term ‘community facility’ is used to describe physical premises and/or facilities for customer use and benefit. They are often characterised by being open to the general public rather than serving a defined client base.
- Community Services for the Disadvantaged (CSP Strand 2) – typical community services delivered include home insulation, disability transport, meals-on-wheels, day care, social activities, personal security, visitation services, community radio and other media.
- Companies employing people who are distant from the labour market (CSP Strand 3) - This comprises of CSP service providers who have twin objectives of delivering services while also creating employment opportunities for specific disadvantaged groups. The core Strand 3 CSP employment target groups are Travellers, people with disabilities, recovering drug mis-users and Ex- prisoners and services must employ at least 70% of the CSP supported FTEs (i.e. 70% of the CSP contracted hours per week) from the specific Strand 3 target groups. As with all service providers in receipt of a funding contribution from the CSP, the employing company or co-op must operate as a social enterprise and demonstrate a strong focus on supporting workers (e.g. personal development, on the job support).
On behalf of the Department, Indecon International Economic Consultants carried out an independent Review of Community Services Programme. The Department and Pobal have now commenced work on the restructuring of the Programme. Pending the transition to the new restructured programme, the open Expression of Interest process is now closed. It is expected that the Programme will open targeted calls to address identified gaps in service delivery in 2021.
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. The report and High Level Action Plan are available below.
Review of Community Services Programme
Prepared for Department of Rural and Community Development by Indecon International Economic Consultants, 2020
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Community Services Programme - High level Action Plan
High level action plan sets out the proposed timeline for delivery of each phase of the 2020 Review of the Community Services Programme
DownloadCommunity Services Programme
Address:
Libraries Development and Community Policy Unit, Department of Rural and Community Development Government Offices, Ballina, Co Mayo.
, F26 E8N6
The Community Services Programme currently supports 418 various community organisations and the Department is committed to the continued support of these organisations. Details of the organisations are set out in the document below.
CSP Supported Organisations August 2020
Organisations supported by the Community Services Programme at August 2020
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