€750,000 for community groups and projects in 2018 under Community Support Fund

Kerry County Council announces details of Community Support Fund

Kerry County Council has announced details of the allocation of €750,000 in funding support for community groups and projects across the county under the Community Support Fund for 2018. A total of 255 groups and projects received grant aid worth €320,000 this year while a proportion of the fund, totalling €430,000, is being retained to leverage funding for strategic projects at Municipal District level and to support projects previously supported by the Town Councils.

The fund, which is in its fourth year, has now supported over 1,250 projects since 2015 to the value of €3m since its establishment. As occurred in 2017, some of the Community Support Fund will be used this year to target strategic projects in the four municipal districts and to co-fund projects which are in receipt of grants from other sources.

Councillors in the four Municipal Districts met on Monday to decide on the allocations and unanimously welcomed the provision of support to the recipeents. Councillors congratulated all the community groups and acknowledged the tremendous voluntary work that these groups do. Full details of the allocations in each of the four Municipal Districts are attached.

In 2017, almost €1m was leveraged from other grant sources such as Town and Village Renewal and the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Fund as a result of the strategic allocation of resources under the Community Support Fund. For 2018, the fund was refocussed to target funding under five categories of support:

  • Growing and Sustaining Communities
  • Community Tidy Towns Initiatives and Amenity Projects
  • Community Sport and Physical Activity Programmes
  • Community Economic Innovation
  • Community Based Tourism, Festivals and Events
    The new minimum grant payable in 2018 is €500.

Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council, Cllr John Sheahan, said: ‘Since the Community Support Fund was established in 2015, a very significant sum of €3m has been invested by Kerry County Council in community projects and initiatives around the county. This is indicative of the council’s support for the work being done by community and voluntary organisations all over the county to build vibrant, sustainable communities and the value of that work in Kerry.’

‘The Community Support Fund has targeted funding towards a very wide range of community-based projects and has provided support to community councils, chamber alliances, tidy towns groups and other organisations in a very progressive and structured way. The retention of part of the fund to help to leverage funding from other sources and to co-fund projects with other funding streams has proven to be an enormous success in recent years and will be successful again, I hope, in 2018.’

Contact Us

The Community Department
County Buildings
Rathass
Tralee
Co.Kerry
066 7183680

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