ent principles in action
ment in example d broken promises who do not have a strong voice of their own. For example, one of the actions in the current workplan is to make sure that residents keep the outside of their house and garden tidy and pay attention to things like maintaining their gutters. Members of the Estate Management & Community Safety Group have now identified people who genuinely cannot carryout this type of maintenance on their own. So some people are being nicely told to clean up their act while others are being supported to do so. Another aspect of inclusion came up recently as a result of our evaluation. There was not enough direct participation by both young and older people in local decisionmaking structures on the estates. Now we are working with the local youth service to support the youth through their club structure to participate in the Shanakill & Rahoonane Estate Management & Community Safety Group.
Accountability Our accountability has in many ways been what has made all the difference. After each main estate management meeting an open public meeting is held within a few weeks to inform the wider community of what decisions have been made in their name. The notice and invitation to the public meeting is done by leaflet drop to every household. The leaflet summarises the decision taken at the main meeting. Residents are also involved in a journalism project at Tralee CDP where they are doing a FETAC course but also producing a community newsletter that keeps everyone up-to-date about RAPID developments in their area. However community accountability on it’s own was not enough. To be honest, at the outset of this process it was very difficult to achieve anything. This was mostly due to lack of engagement and accountability by the relevant state agencies. We have used the AIT (Area Implementation Team of RAPID) as a way of making the agencies accountable. There is nothing more powerful than a mandated, well prepared, community rep sitting at the decision-making table with the heads of key government departments. Teaching the community how to follow-up all their issues by being a polite but insistent broken record has really paid off.
Change Ultimately this is what community development is all about. Addressing the immediate, visible, tangible problems can changing ireland
Tralee’s Lucky Horseshoe. sometimes be like putting band aids on festering wounds. Therefore tackling the root cause is also necessary. And this is where policy work becomes so important. Over time we have managed to drip-drip skills and knowledge in this regard to the group. They have made a number of submissions to government departments. Ongoing policy issues are fed up to the National Monitoring Committee of RAPID and locally to SIM (the Social Inclusion Measure Group of the Kerry County Development Board). So change is happening. At the local estate level much has been achieved – a new playground, a sports field and basketball hoops, growth of an organic garden, refurbishment of boarded up houses, the closure of a problematic dike cutting through the Shanakill & Rahoonane estates. But now we need to move to the next level. A logical move will be to work with Tralee Town Council on a housing allocation policy. We are also going to embark on community safety work this year. Much of this will link into national policy changes such as the new Joint Policing Committees and Community Policing Fora which provide for cooperation between the community, Gardai and the local authority.
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Finally, just to say that the Shanakill & Rahoonane Estate Management & Community Safety Group are now recognised as a model of good practice. A number of things (other than the above!) have led to this. The most important is the use of community development principles. Staying focussed on the fact that the process is as important as the outcome is key. This is what has led to respectful working relationships across the community and state sector.
Appeal for writers! ‘Changing Ireland’ would be interested in hearing proposals from people working in CDPs who can show how Community Development principles were used in their work from the start to the finish of a project. In time, a series of these articles should serve to show, for instance, how community development is different to local development work. why is the word ‘phonetic’ not spelt phonetically?