Network News. Welcome to new PPN Reps. Great Turnout at March Plenary

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1 Network News 7th April 2017 Your FREE round-up of all that is important in the Co Monaghan community sector, delivered to your Inbox Welcome to this edition of the PPN s e-newsletter. Leona s on a well-earned break, so called in her Minions to get this edition of the Newsletter out. Carol, Chief Minion, reporting for duty here! Hopefully we can live up to Leona s impeccable standards. Normal service will resume for the next issue! Welcome to new PPN Reps At our March Plenary meeting, the following Reps were appointed: PPN Secretariat Michael O Hare, Monaghan Allotments Group Patsy Doody, Boyher Residents Association PJ Harte, Older Persons Network Social, Cultural & Community SPC Alex Watson, Monaghan Arts Network Brian McDonald, Cahans Project LEADER Evaluation Committee: Eamonn McNally, Tydavnet Development Anne Malone, Doohamlet Development Welcome to all, and thank you for stepping forward to serve the community. Without reps serving on these committees, the community sector would be voiceless when decisions are being made, and we would all be the poorer for it. Welcome to Blayney Rockets Athletics Club, who on 10th March became the 380th group to join the PPN. Thanks for joining guys! Great Turnout at March Plenary We were delighted with the fantastic turnout in Ballybay Wetlands on 21st March, where the focus was on the new County Development Plan. Feedback from the planning staff who attended on the night was that they were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and the knowledge in the room, and found it a tremendously positive experience to engage with the PPN. So well done to everyone! We have taken the output from the workshops and put it online, so that those who weren t able to attend on the night can still have a chance to add to it up to 14th April. The Secretariat will then take this raw material and prepare a draft Submission on behalf of the PPN. This will be issued to all Member Groups towards the end of April for comment. It will only be submitted to the Council when everyone is happy with it. To have a look, and add your tuppence, go to: We would like to remind you that while the PPN is preparing a submission, individual Member Groups, or Networks might also wish to prepare their own submissions for example, the Heritage Network may wish to comment on the heritage aspects of the County Development Plan. And of course, every one of us as citizens and residents of the county should consider making a submission in our own right on issues which affect us, and where we live. The closing date for making submissions on the County Development Plan is 5th May.

2 Happy 201st to Monaghan s most famous Active Citizen! Funding for LGBT Migrants, Ethnic Minorities Charles Gavan Duffy, follower of Daniel O Connell, one of the Young Irelanders, founder of the Nation newspaper, and the Tenant League which organised tenant farmers to seek better conditions from their landlords giving the term boycott to the English dictionary, was born in Dublin St on April 12th, A barrister by profession, he became prime minister of Victoria, Australia. His daughter Louise, returned to Ireland and fought in the Easter Rising. A 201st birthday party is being held in the Westenra hotel to mark the occasion. Come along and thank this often overlooked, but hugely influential figure in the Irish journey towards independence from English rule. When: April 12th 8pm Venue: Westenra Hotel, Monaghan Don t Forget: April is National Spring Clean month the Council s Environment section will provide a skip and other support to groups organising clean ups in their areas. Contact The Community Foundation for Ireland's ongoing grants strategy, now named "Social Change Grants" has been confirmed for The Social Change grants that will be open for application will be under the categories of: - LGBT+ people who are Migrants, - Leadership for Ethnic Minorities. For further details and to apply to the LGBT+ people who are Migrants category please see here< For further details and to apply to the Leadership for Ethnic Minorities category please see here<

3 MONAGHAN LOCAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (LCDC) COMMUNITIES FACILITIES SCHEME The Communities Facilities Scheme is being launched by Monaghan LCDC. It is a funding scheme to enhance communities, address disadvantage and improve social cohesion at a local level by providing access to small-scale capital grants. An allocation of 64,500 has been made available for the scheme in The Scheme will be administered by the LCDC along with the Municipal Districts under the remit of Monaghan County Council on behalf of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. Under the scheme community and voluntary groups may apply for a grant up to 1,000 for capital projects which benefit the local community. Applications are now being invited for funding under this Scheme. Applications should relate to at least one key target group and thematic area in order to be eligible for consideration e.g. youth, older people, immigrants, refugees, travellers, ex-prisoners, projects promoting cultural activity, equality, community development, integration and projects which are part of the Creative Ireland initiative. Projects or elements of projects of a capital nature may be funded, for example, office equipment, project resources, research facilities, energy efficiency equipment, etc. Eligible applications must meet the following criteria: Projects must be in keeping with the ethos of the Scheme Projects must be complementary to the Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP) (the Plan can be viewed at -lecp/) Closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 30th June 2017 at 5pm Guidelines on criteria and application forms for the new Communities Facilities Scheme are available by contacting: Ann Murray, Monaghan County Council, Community Development Section on or cfapplications@monaghancoco.ie Or by downloading the forms from LATE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. European Funding and Policy An Interactive Discussion with Matt Carthy MEP: Monaghan 21 April 2017 Venue: Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan Time: 11am-1pm Taking place in the Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan from 11am, this short but highly impactful session will inform voluntary and charitable organisations about European funding opportunities available and also give them a chance to consider some crucial questions relating to Europe: What is the impending impact of Brexit on their work; what EU funding is available to civil society; and overall, in a rapidly changing context, what is the value of engaging in Europe? All are welcome but please register a place by booking online at the Wheel.ie

4 Monaghan LEADER - Rural Tourism Festivals Time-Limited Call Event on: Wednesday 19 th April at 7.30p.m. in the Four Seasons Hotel, Monaghan Town The call for festival funding is open to accept expressions of interest forms from 19 April and closes on 19 May This festival projects call is targeted towards supporting the purchase of festival equipment/infrastructure & joint marketing for festivals, which work together for benefit of all in their area. This opportunity is open to all festival groups in County Monaghan and further information about this call is available from this link: leader-tourism-call. If you are interested in going along, please contact the LEADER development staff at the Monaghan Integrated Development office on select option 7 or LEADER@midl.ie Fancy Being an Ambassador? Ever imagine yourself swanning around in evening wear scoffing platefuls of gold-wrapped chocolate balls? Well, we just might have the gig for you! Muintir na Tire (they invented, and still look after, Community Alert) are looking for volunteers to train up as Crime Prevention Ambassadors for Co Monaghan. The Gardai have identified a number of older people living alone in isolated rural areas, and who would be vulnerable to crime. This Crime Prevention Ambassadors scheme has had a good record of success in reaching people aren t availing as much as they could be of the supports which are there for them, probably because it uses local people to drop in and have a chat, rather than sending out official-looking people to talk at people in officialsounding language that is far above their heads. So, would you like to get out and call on a few neighbours for a chat, let them know about a few schemes that are available to help them such as Seniors Alert (the pendant alarm one), give them free stuff like smoke alarms, and a bit of information about how to spot the latest scams and what to do? Volunteers go out in pairs, and are provided with training beforehand as well as a certificate at the end. At worst, your visit might brighten someone s day; at best, it might save their life. And think of the chocolates..at least, we re pretty sure about the chocolates... Contact Vanessa Clarke at veeceeze@hotmmail.com Sustainability Matters Compiled by Liam Murtagh Organic Centre Courses, Rossinver, Co Leitrim: Saturday, 21 April: (1) Fermented and Cultured Foods - an introduction. (2) Urban Gardening, growing in small spaces and containers. Sunday, 22 April; Free Event - Big Spring Plant Sale and GIY afternoon with the Centre s Community Gardeners. Free guided tours through the gardens and polytunnels.see the full course listing at Earth Day: Saturday, 22 April. Every year, thousands of people across the world take part in Earth Day events to draw attention of climate change and promote sustainability. See Green Sod Ireland is hosting a Green Picnic at Merrion Square, Dublin on Earth Day. This is a free family event with lots of activities taking place. See Fashion Revolution Day: Monday, 24 April. Each year, Fashion Revolution Day brings everyone in the fashion value chain together to help raise awareness of the true cost of fashion, show the world that change is possible, and celebrate all those involved in creating a more sustainable future. Why not get in contact with brands and ask them #whomademyclothes to discover the real people throughout the supply chain. See Irish Green Building Council Conference: Wednesday, 26 April, 1.30pm - 5pm in Chartered Accountants House, Pearse St, Dublin. This year s conference focuses on the two key themes - health & well-being and the imminent Nearly Zero Energy standard. See Have your Say on Plan for Fruit & Veg Sector: Anew strategic framework is being developed to help farmers and growers in the fruit and veg sector become more sustainable and profitable. submissions by 26 April to POScheme@agriculture.gov.ie. See Latest News at It's Spring Alive again! Don't forget to report when you see your first Swallow, Swift or Cuckoo of the year. Please log your observations to Birdwatch Ireland at Transition Monaghan is a voluntary community initiative promoting local and global sustainability. See Thanks Liam for your news items :)

5 A Tour of Monaghan County Council s Website Have you ever needed to know some statistic about Co. Monaghan and not known where to get it? Well, chances are you can now find it on the Council s website. The Council has bought a service called Economic & Community Monitor, which sucks through data from a variety of national data collectors and spits out the Monaghan-relevant information. It also provides a regional and national comparison, which can be handy. The service is free to use, and can be accessed in the Community section of the Council s website: aghan-economic-community-monitor/ Here s a really handy wee service which has just been launched. You can now register to have alerts sent to your mobile phone and/ or address if any incident arises which affects up to two addresses which you can enter on the system. The system is smart enough to be figure out if an incident might affect your route between those two addresses!. Incidents which will be entered into the system include road closures, weather alerts, flood alerts, road accident alerts etc. Council personnel attending sites can now enter data on their smart phones, issue a public notice, eg a road closure, and have it online within minutes for the public. They can also get the information out within minutes when the road re-opens. This is a really powerful tool and everyone should sign up! Another service you can access through the Council s website is Fix Your Street. This is an online service which enables members of the public to report issues quickly online. The report is directed automatically to the appropriate section (roads, litter, public lighting etc) to deal with. You can alert the Council to a faulty street light via the website which lets you zoom in to the individual street lights to identify the one you wish to alert the Council about. It s a scary world we re living in, folks...

6 Fundraising Focus I m going to share a fundraising idea with you that I came across once in where else but Cavan; Maudabawn to be exact. I passed it on to Stradone, who used it to fund an extension to their community centre. I see no reason this can t work in every community up and down the county, as it wouldn t actually be taking any extra funds out of anyone s pocket, above and beyond what they re already spending.. Sounds too good to be true, doesn t it? But it isn t! The idea is simple: create a National Lottery Syndicate. Instead of investing all of the syndicate s money in the National Lottery each draw, you invest an agreed proportion of the money. The rest is held over, to be invested in an agreed community project. So, the syndicate might have 100 members. It might agree to invest 50 members money in the Lotto, and 50 members money in the community project. It might decide to run the syndicate for 2 years. 100 members 2 draws per week 5 per draw What s in it for the Syndicate Member? 52 weeks per year They re doing the Lotto anyway. You re not asking them to buy any extra tickets for any more raffles. You re just asking them to do the Lotto through you rather than do it directly themselves. And for that, you will power up their money by 50, giving them more chances of having a winner. Plus if the syndicate does have a big win, they ll get the craic of being part of the party that is sure to happen! And they get all this while doing good in their community. The odds are that over the course of the first year, they ll gather up enough in small wins to pay for next year s membership into the syndicate, allowing them to continue to help the community and give themselves a chance of a big win for FREE for another year! It s a win win, literally! For 2 years = 104,000 The nuts and bolts: The % of shares invested in the Lotto ve sus in the community is decided by the community. It does not have to be 50:5 nor does it have to stay constant foreve It could be reviewed annually, and changed if the members were agreeable A syndicate could also continue indefinitely, or wind up after a defined period Invest half back into National Lottery The other half becomes available to th community Raises 52,000 If the community is seeking grant aid o large project, for which the grant rate i 75%, the above amount would enable What s involved in running the syndicate? the group to leverage a grant of You can set up the syndicate any way you wish: eg to do one national draw a week, 156,000 to do a Euromillions draw, to do one of each a week. You specify on your mem- ( 52,000 is 25%, 156,000 is 75%) bership brochure what draws will be done each week. This will determine what Giving the group a total project budget the weekly cost of membership will be. 208,000 Payment arrangements differ from syndicate to syndicate, depending on local circumstance. Some go for monthly direct debits in advance, some go for weekly col- Need more? lections around the houses. Some give members a range of options to sign up to, The community could increase the num in the syndicate from 100 to 200, or run then take it from there. It depends on how much help you have on the ground, second syndicate when the first is full. and how technologically savvy you are. Each Member picks 2 lines of numbers. These are done each draw. If they prefer, they can just have 2 quick pick lines done instead. One committee person is appointed with a back-up person in case of emergency to purchase the tickets. Online advance purchasing can be done on Lotto.ie, which makes life easy for syndicates. ths! he ma t t a k o lo a e Hav

7 Heritage Week August Call for Events The Heritage Council has put out a call to community groups, asking them to start planning for this year s Heritage Week. It has published a handy guide 100 Event Ideas which is full of great ideas for events you could run during Heritage Week or indeed, at any other time of the year! You can access the Guide here: The Heritage Council also gives advice on planning and promoting your event. Again, this advice is useful for any event you run throughout the yearm so it s well worth your while getting involved in Heritage Week, as a learning experience which will enhance your group s capacity to run events overall. Groups are asked to register any events they plan to run during Heritage Week, so that the Heritage Council can then publicise a national and county-by-county calendar of event. This year, they re designating Wednesday 23rd August as Wild Child Day and asking groups to plan events around children and nature for that day. Need we say, the more of this kind of thin your group is doing, the better, when it comes to applying for funding.. Community Smoke Alarm Scheme Get your Orders In! n a s The Dept of the Environment is running its smoke alarm scheme for vulnerable households again, and we have 500 smoke alarms to give out to community groups, for installation in vulnerable households around the county. We need your help to identify those vulnerable households and to install the alarms. They re 10-year sealed units, so no changing of batteries required. Just screw them into the ceiling, and check them once a week to be sure they re working. The Dept defines vulnerable householders as older people, people of any age if they re living alone and people living in private rented accommodation. If your group is interested in targeting people who fall into the vulnerable category and distributing alarms, please get in touch. of ber a r- 0, r... clambe@monaghancoco.ie The project which is to benefit from the funds raised can also change. For example, once the initial project has no further need of support, perhaps the school will need help, or a local child needs an operation, or the GAA team needs new jerseys... Potentially, every Area Development Group could operate a syndicate, and annually sit down with all the groups in its area to assess their funding needs for coming year, then apportion the funds to be raised from the syndicate according to need, setting some aside each year towards long term capital projects, so that you re building up a reserve for when you need it. The set-up costs are low: Because you re going out to the public to sell places in your syndicate, you will need to apply to the district court for a licence. It s a small task, and it s a one-off. And you ll need to print some kind of brochure to explain the syndicate and provide a sign-up form to potential members. A few posters, and you re sorted! In case you re Wondering I give out my address a lot. This is because I m in and out of the office a lot, and therefore I m hard to get on the phone It s also because I can t work the answering machine on the phone! So don t leave a message. If you don t get me on the land line, hang up, and me! Carol Lambe Community Development Officer Office of Community & Enterprise, Monaghan County Council

8 If you haven t heard about this programme, now s the time to look into it, because you re going to be hearing a lot more about it. Building on the success of the mobilisation of communities to commemorate 1916 last year, this programme seeks to place our cultural heritage at the heart of our lives, and harness it as a tool for economic regeneration. Local authorities will be a key driver of the initiative, and Monaghan Co Co has put together a Culture Team to lead the process of preparing a Culture & Creativity Plan for the county. This will guide the Council in developing events, amenities and activities which promote Co. Monaghan s cultural gems, and will direct future funding decisions. Have a look, get familiar, and get involved in the consultation for the Culture & Creativity Plan later this year: Greenway Update The Waters and Communities office are hosting meetings across County Monaghan to get submissions from communities on the new draft River Basin Management Plan. If you would like to find out about local water quality and if you have a particular interest in protecting our local waterways or would just like to learn more about them, please come along and have your say. YWCA North Rd. Monaghan Clones Canal Stores Carrickmacross Workhouse For more information contact your local community water officer, Gretta McCarron at gmccarron@lawco.ie 7:30pm Tuesday 25 th April 7:30pm Wednesday 3 rd May 7:30pm Tuesday 9 th May The wheels are finally rolling on the extension to the Ulster Canal Greenway! Almost 5 million has been secured from the EU INTERREG VA programme for a 22km extension, which will run from Middletown, Co Armagh, into Monaghan town, then connect onwards to Smithboro. Work this year will mostly involve environmental studies, design drawings and public consultation. Next year will be about planning and land acquisition will be about construction, all going to plan, and we ll be marching up and down the banks of the canal by March 2020! This will be Phase II of a much longer route, which we hope will eventually connect all the way from Portadown to Enniskillen. A Strategic Environmental Assessment is underway on this long-distance route, and a public consultation on that is expected in early May. We will circulate details of that to you nearer the time. In the meantime, if you want to contact the Project Manager for the Middletown to Smithboro project, contact Roisin Moore on rmoore@monaghancoco.ie

9 PEACE NEWS The PEACE IV Programme is now underway, with some parts already open for applications. Co. Monaghan s Peace Plan has been accepted by the SEUPB (many of you will remember participating in a consultation workshop to help develop the Plan last year), and recruitment is underway for a number of posts to help deliver projects which are included in the Plan. These include: an intergenerational project, a project to promote Monaghan as a County of Sanctuary, an intercultural youth project to be run through the libraries called Monaghan Makers, and a youth project which seeks to Build Communities through Sport & Recreation. There will be opportunities for communities to get involved in hosting activities in their areas under all these programmes. Watch this space. In addition to these large, directly-delivered programmes, there will be a SMALL GRANTS programme. Community groups will be able to apply directly to the Partnership for funding. There will be two main categories: Shared Spaces: This will support the creation or enhancement of existing cross community shared spaces Projects will be of a capital nature, eg parks, buildings, walking trails Grants between 5,000 and 30,000 will be available Projects should be in some way contributing towards dialogue, reconciliation, sharing of public spaces, reducing segregation Building Positive Relations: Projects under this category will be programmeoriented, ie they re likely to involve people and activities rather than physical buildings. Grants of between 15,000 and 75,000 will be available Projects might be related to the Decade of Commemorations (1916 etc) Projects must demonstrate that they contribute to building positive relations and that they have an element of cross community engagement The Monaghan PEACE IV Partnership are currently awaiting SEUPB approval to open for applications for their Small Grants programme. They hope to open for applications in early June, and close at the end of July. If this timetable comes to pass, decisions will be made on projects in September, enabling groups to get their projects underway in October. SO GET WORKING ON YOUR PROJECT IDEAS NOW GUYS. More info: Nicola Payne, Programme Manager npayne@monaghancoco.ie Monaghan County Council is submitting an application under the Peace IV programme to develop a new shared space in Monaghan town. This shared space will allow for the first time the integration of youth facilities, library services, community hub, and museum facilities. As part of the application, the Council has to demonstrate the need for this facility. To support their application, the Council is looking to update information it gathered in a 2012 survey of community needs, and look at the current needs of community groups in Monaghan. If your group operates in the Monaghan town area, and needs a place to meet, or to deliver training, or to roll out a service, or to expand a programme you can t deliver at present due to lack of space..now s your opportunity to make your needs known and have them designed into the new Peace Campus. You can get a copy of the survey from Gillian at gcostello@monaghancoco.ie

10 CLÁR FUNDING SCHEME 2017 CLÁR is a targeted investment programme for rural areas that aims to provide funding for small infrastructural projects in areas that experience disadvantage at Schools /Community Facilities ATTENTION! Measure 1 Support for Schools/Community Safety Measures Up to 90% funding available Eligible Interventions: Amber Safety Lights Child Safety Lights Speed Safety Lights Pedestrian Crossings Access footpaths Bus Shelters Car Parking Facilities Public Lighting Grant Range up to 50,000 Measure 2 Schools/Community Play Areas Up to 90% funding available Grant Range 5,000 to 50,000 There is a FOURTH Measure which is open to First Response groups who operate primarily in emergency/first response/rescue situations Groups apply directly to the Dept under Measure 4. Closing date is 5th May. To help Co. Monaghan groups have the best possible chance, I m co-ordinating a meeting for all groups thinking of making an application under Measure 4 to discuss possible project ideas. Venue: Castleblayney Enterprise Centre Date: Thursday 20th April Time: 8pm Any DED in yellow or blue is IN a CLAR-eligible area Measure 3 Targeted Community Infrastructure Needs Up to 85% funding available Grant Range 5,000 to 50,000 Application forms and guidelines are available on or by to clar2017@monaghancoco.ie Contact: clambe@monaghancoco.ie for more information on Measure 4 or the above meeting Note: It is Monaghan Co. Co s intention to help groups with the match funding requirement of the CLAR programme. Groups will be required to find a minimum of 5% of the cost of the project from their own resources Completed Applications should be returned to Teresa McGuirk, CLÁR 2017 Applications, Community Development Section, Monaghan County Council, The Glen, Monaghan. Closing date for receipt of applications is 4pm Thursday 27th April Send your items for future newsletter editions to Leona at ppn@monaghancoco.ie