COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, April 12, 2021

QUESTION NO. 32

QUESTION: Councillor F. Timmons

To ask the chief executive for a report into the funding of community centres in SDCC and to ask him to consider how the council can fund them going forward , while acknowledging the council grants that are available each year , My question related to the payment for the manager and the utility bills, would the manager look at models for community centres from other councils?

REPLY:

The Council's Community Grants Programme provides the opportunity each year for community groups across the County, including boards of management for community centres, to apply for financial assistance across a range of different grant options to help with ongoing group and project costs.  This programme also specifically includes annual management assistance grants to support boards of management with their operational and management costs for multi-purpose community centres along with some supports for certain centres in respect of employment costs centres each year. (The 2021 Community Grants programme opened for applications on 5th April, please see this link for further details).

In addition, the Council sponsors ongoing placement of direct staffing resources to many community centres through the Community Employment Scheme and this is complemented by other similar labour activation programmes sponsored by other organisations that provide further staffing resources that many community centres access.

A number of boards of management directly employ community centre managers to take responsibility for the management and operation of facilities and the Council works with a range of Government departments and funding agencies to support some community centres with access to additional funding streams to assist with ongoing staff costs (e.g. Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund administered by the Dublin & Dun Laoghaire Education Training Board and the Community Services Programme administered by Pobal).  

Given the specific challenges faced by boards of management in operating community centres in the context of the COVID-19 related restrictions, the community grants programme was revised to provide additional supports including an additional round of management assistance funding and a community centre re-opening fund to assist with implementing COVID-19 safety measures while the Community Development Team also directly organised COVID-19 Response Plans and staff training to assist the staff and boards of management of centres where CE participants are placed.  The same flexible and responsive action to the needs of community centres will continue in 2021 with continued supports for COVID related responses and any board of management facing any significant additional pressures should make early contact with the Community Development team for direct advice, support or emergency assistance if necessary.

The hybrid of models of support across the various boards of management in the County generally mirror those in other local authority areas but best practice models can be further explored under the remit of the Social, Community and Equality Strategic Policy Committee.