The evening included presentations from Community Finance Ireland, Creative Ireland Programme, The Community Section, Mayo County Council, and information and updates from Mayo PPN. The meeting was opened by PPN Resource Worker, Mary Costello, who welcomed everybody to the meeting and presented the PPN Workplan and Projected Budget for 2023.
Secretariat chairperson Darragh Owens thanked in advance the speakers for the evening: Anne Graham, Community Finance; Austin Vaughan, Creative Ireland; Maura Murphy, Mayo County Council; and Mary Costello, PPN resource worker.
Anne Graham gave a detailed presentation on funding available from Community Finance Ireland and steps on how to submit a successful grant application. Creative Finance Ireland is a social finance provider and provides term and bridging loans to any community led organisation.
Austin Vaughan spoke about the funding opportunities available to communities through the Creative Ireland Programme. The Creative Ireland Strategy 2023-2027 is in place and is part of the Creative Communities Pillar 2. The group is involved with, but not limited to, arts, heritage, coding and film. Some of the projects Creative Ireland assisted with for Creative Ireland Day included Sandcastle Building in Achill, Street Art in Ballina, Colour Dash in Claremorris, Culture Nights, Other Voices, Ballina 2023, and Belmullet 2024.
Maura Murphy gave a comprehensive update on the programmes delivered by the Community Section in Mayo County Council. The programmes covered were Leader, Age Friendly Mayo, Healthy Mayo, Community Futures, SICAP and Pride of Place.
Mary Costello rounded off the information evening by detailing the events and achievements of Mayo PPN that took place in 2022. This year saw a huge interest and uptake in the free training programmes provided by Mayo PPN to community groups. Some of the other highlights mentioned were the development of a Community Wellbeing Vision Statement for Co Mayo. Consultation workshops were held in all the Municipal Districts. The aim of the Wellbeing Vision is to look at how we can make Mayo the best possible place to live, work and invest. The finding from the Wellbeing Vision Statement will feed into Mayo Co Council’s Local Economic and Community Plan. The plan consists of an economic element and a community element and will also feed into other stakeholders' plans and various strategies and policies. Mayo County Council will be engaging with PPN groups in relation to the LECP. The Wellbeing Vision Statement is at draft stage and will be presented to the full Plenary in 2023.
Mayo PPN has developed a Mayo PPN Community Interactive Map. The map will list all community groups in Mayo registered with Mayo PPN. This map will showcase community groups’ services and amenities. It will also list assets groups have available to share with other groups in their local area (marquees, tables, crockery, etc ). The interactive map is displayed on the PPN website. Currently there are more than 1,000 community groups registered with Mayo PPN. During 2022 Mayo PPN held community open days and Climate Conversations Workshops along with sharing community groups' events and activities through their social media platforms. For more information on Mayo PPN see www.mayoppn.ie
