ILDN

Shauna McClenaghan is joint CEO of Inishowen Development Partnership, a local development company in Co Donegal. She chats here with editor Allen Meagher as part of our Changing Ireland Together podcast pilot series.

Three local development company representatives welcomed the announcement of a new Community Connection Project which will employ 30 community link workers countrywide. Notably, the new community workers will have a communications role.

Why can’t people in wheelchairs or who are almost immobile go to the gym? Answer: They can, as the No Barriers Foundation in Letterkenny has proven. The cost – a tenth of what private providers would likely charge. A radical transformation would unfold if the Government and wider society embraced the rights based model of disability, argues Allen Meagher in his editorial. Our spring edition highlights three rights-based projects that show how change happens when we remove barriers to disability. Meagher also talks about the value of social enterprises. He points to volunteers filling gaps when it comes to food poverty. And he asks – what else should we be doing about Israel’s genocidal attacks on Palestine?

Social enterprises need guidance. One of the aims of the Social Enterprise IMPACT Awards competition was to capture key learnings from those that do it best and here is some advice from the winners:

Research finds that Dublin-based men's health social enterprise represents "incredible value for money".

Rob Nicholson works as a principal officer in the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) with responsibility for the development and implementation of Ireland's National Social Enterprise Policy and - speaking at a recent awards ceremony - he gave "a heads-up" on what to expect in the second iteration of that policy.

The Irish Local Development Network (ILDN) is running a competition with €45,000 in prizes for social enterprises that best demonstrate their social impact. The application process was designed to be as straight-forward and user-friendly as possible and the deadline is coming fast – Sunday, December 10th.

- ILDN’s Dec 10 social impact competition taking place in “a world of greenwashing, pinkwashing” where public need reassurance