LEADER Smart Villages

Duhallow News

LEADER Smart Villages Training Opportunity

We are currently recruiting participants from Boherbue, Bweeng, Inchigeelagh and Tureencahill. The training will run on Tuesday 22nd and 29th March and 5th April from 6.30pm-9.30pm.

Smart Villages is a national programme that has been commissioned by sixteen local development companies from around the country and is being delivered under LEADER in 2022. Smart Villages are communities in rural areas that use innovative solutions to improve their resilience, building on local strengths and opportunities. The Smart Village Curriculum compiled by eTownz, is a modular and pragmatic approach to local development, where the town creates an interactive register for its local Assets, Stakeholders, Goals, Projects and Metrics. CEO of eTownz, Pat Kennedy says “The Smart Village approach seeks to bring together local knowledge and digital tools to empower local communities”. Each session will introduce a new key topic, which will guide participants through the process of creating a “Smart Village Plan” for their area. The training will be delivered in the James O’Keeffe Institute, Newmarket. A Smart Village plan will be created for each community with the objective that when all communities have been completed, we will be able to weave relevant data from each plan together to build capacity for the area and to further strengthen the region and enable our communities to access many opportunities, including funding from the EU and government initiatives. The ENRD (European Network for Rural Development), which oversees LEADER funding has determined that all future grant funding must align with the concepts of “Smart Villages”. Once the plan for each area has been prepared, it will be reviewed annually in a consultative and inclusive manner by all local stakeholders. This is really exciting and is complementary to the community planning work IRD Duhallow carried out in 2019 when a “roadshow” included consultation with all communities in their own community. LEADER Smart Villages will offer the opportunity to collaborate and plan for new projects that will be beneficial to peoples own area but also the region of Duhallow. Recruitment for this training is underway and we would encourage anyone with an interest in improving your local area to jump in and get involved! We believe it will enable greater collaboration and communication between villages, towns and local organisations such as IRD Duhallow and Cork/Kerry County Councils and it will help discover symbiotic relationships by working with people who have similar interests and skills complimentary to implementing the Smart Village plan.

If you are interested in becoming a trained LEADER Smart Village Champion, register your interest now with Bríghid-Íde Walsh on 029-60633 or email brighid-ide. walsh@irdduhallow.com