COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
MOTION NO. 6
MOTION: Councillor W. Lavelle
That this Committee requests the Manager to initiate a feasibility study into the provision of an Enterprise Centre and ‘jobs hub’ in the Lucan and Adamstown area to include physical space such as 'hot-desks' and 'incubator units' for use by local entrepreneurs and business start-ups as well as providing a base for Local Employment Services and for training programmes run by CPLN Area Partnership and other bodies. In conducting this feasibility study the Committee further requests the Manager to liaise with CPLN Area Partnership, the County Enterprise Board, Enterprise Ireland, the developers of Adamstown SDZ and other potential stakeholders and to research all funding opportunities and existing premises in Lucan and Adamstown available to let and to report back to a future meeting of this Committee with a report under a headed item.
REPORT:
The provision of an enterprise centre is part of the required infrastructure in the Adamstown phasing arrangements and the nature of same has been the subject of ongoing discussions with the developers. The Council works closely with the service providers mentioned in the Motion in the existing enterprise centres in the County and other related facilities. Set out below is a comprehensive update on the Innovation Network (formerly IEZ) which is about to be launched on a Regional basis.
1. Introduction.
The Intellectual Enterprise Zone (IEZ) was initially developed as new approach to addressing the needs of high skilled/professionals through co-ordination in the delivery of policies, services and training to these individuals with the view of facilitating their return to employment or enterprises. The concept was and is the introduction of participants to new and creative ways of re-engineering their approach to “work” and to develop new strategies from this approach supported by their contacts with the other participants and the partner agencies. In order to truly reflect this concept the project was renamed the Innovation rather than Intellectual Enterprise Zone in June 2010.
The IEZ was initially launched and piloted in South Dublin County and will now be relaunched at regional level to provide a viable scale of geographic coverage and capacity of high skilled unemployed/underemployed.
Set out below is :
(a) Outline progress on the initiative in South Dublin County.
(b) Introduce the Regional proposals.
(c) Conclude with the overall forward vision for the project.
2. Progress in South Dublin County.
(a) Contact with participants : With the assistance of the Dept of Social Welfare written contact has been made with almost 3,000 individuals over a 12 month period, inviting them to sign on the IEZ website. More direct marketing options will require examination and implementation.
(b) Establishment of steering group: The steering committee guiding the initiative was established in late 2009 and meets in County Hall on a monthly basis and includes representatives from the Dept of Social Welfare, CEB, FAS, ACE, Tallaght IT the Partnerships etc. The meetings are convened by the IEZ co-ordinator. The Ryan Academy, supported by DCU and based in City West, have expressed interest in becoming involved.
The steering group reflects the type of inter agency approach developed in relation to the Children's Services Committee and Traveller services in South Dublin County.
(c) The Virtual Zone : The website is established and fulfills a number of functions. It is the first point of contact for many participants, it is a tool for virtual communication between participants and it is a means of communicating new information from agencies and relevant bodies to participants. Linkages with social media are included and the website is now being re-designed with a view to the Regional approach..
(d) The Physical Zone : The shared office space is fitted out with 13 PCs on a corporate network with high speed internet access and printing\photocopying facilities. Take-up of the space has been below expectation, mainly because the target audience tend to have an equivalent setup at home. There is an average of 4 to 5 people using the office space per day and the intention is that building on the social aspect would encourage more members to use the space.
(e) “Spaces for Change”: In addition to the office space in County Hall, the initiative has made extensive use of other public facilities such as the Library Seminar room and the multimedia lab in Rua Red. This has included training, monthly seminars and talks and opportunities for the participants to socially interact. It is interesting to note that participants have on a number of occasions indicated a preference for an opportunity to simply exchange ideas rather than a scheduled “event” and/or speaker. Agreement has been reached with the CEB, and our other partners, on converting the former Property Path office in County Hall, (the former very effective affordable housing sales office), to the current need as an Innovation centre for South Dublin. The CEB are in occupation and the public area is being set up as an "Innovation Hub".The usage of the IEZ physical zone will be offered as an element of this centre. This element of the project may provide an opportunity to develop a method of combined information delivery that can be replicated at other public offices, the obvious potential being libraries.
(f) “Communities of practice” : The concept behind communities of practice is to develop new innovation and better ways of working across a number of actors/actions in a common field. Based on feedback from SDCC involvement in the Connect project, our partners and the participants, the first community of practice in relation to the teaching profession was launched in St Aidan's school on 21st April. Other communities of practice will be developed focusing on other professions including energy, property, finance etc. One example is the increasing role of social media in communications and information sharing which offers emerging opportunities for innovation. To this end mediasnackers facilitated a seminar on 9th June in County Hall on the use of social media. Council staff, members, our partner agencies and IEZ participants attended the sessions. The development of a community of practice in the social media field will be a priority in the progression of the initiative. SDCC ongoing projects in sustainable energy and transport can provide opportunities for other communities of practice.
3. Innovation Network on a regional basis
As outlined above the Network was initially launched and piloted in South Dublin County and will be relaunched at regional level through the DRA to provide a viable scale of geographic coverage and capacity of high skilled unemployed/underemployed .
4. Conclusion.
The project has been developed on a number of levels:
· Virtual and physical project infrastructure development.
· Training/information
· Steering committee representative of partner agencies
· Monthly seminars
· Communities of practice
· Innovation service and information centre
· Regional initiative.
The renaming of the project has not changed but rather represents the concept of innovation in terms of examining valuable “work” as opposed to declining former employment opportunities. True innovation will lead to new economically efficient methods of delivering goods and services providing opportunities for participants and ultimately improving local and regional economic performance and sustainability.
SDCC will support the Regional project but local development of the initiative as outlined above will continue. Members will be kept informed of progress in this regard.