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 2022.  A total of 178 groups and projects received grant aid worth €385,000 this year while a proportion of the fund, totalling €365,000, is being retained to leverage funding from other funding streams for strategic projects at Municipal District level.

The fund, which is in its eight year, has now supported 1,778 projects since 2015 to the value of €6m since its establishment.  As occurred in previous years, some of the Community Support Fund will be used this year to target strategic projects in the five municipal districts and to co-fund projects which are in receipt of grants from other sources.

Councillors in the five Municipal Districts met during week commencing 28^th March 2022 to decide on the allocations and unanimously welcomed the provision of support to the recipients. Councillors congratulated all the community groups and acknowledged the tremendous voluntary work that these groups do.

The Community Support fund is again successfully animating and empowering communities through projects, as groups across the county try to reconnect and recover from the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic. The fund provides confidence to communities as we work together to rebuild and reconnect communities.  For 2022, the fund will build on this and target funding under four categories of support:

• Rebuilding and Reconnecting Communities
• Community Tidy Town Initiatives and Amenity Projects
• Community Economic Innovation
• Community Based Tourism, Festivals and Events

Full details of the Community Support Fund allocations in each of the five Municipal Districts are below:

• Castleisland Corca Dhuibhne MD
• Kenmare MD
• Killarney MD
• Listowel MD
• Tralee MD