COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, December 13, 2021

MOTION NO. 7

MOTION: Councillor Joanna Tuffy

That the Council consider a campaign that promotes our diversity and our aims at integration in our local communities including an advertising campaign (details supplied: see Fingal campaign https://www.fingal.ie/fingal-integration as an example)

REPORT:

Our Social Inclusion team within the Community Department continues to support a range of initiatives and programmes including in relation to age friendly programmes, education and support around Traveller culture, development of the LGBT+ network and associated supports, anti-racism and migrant integration, anti-poverty and other related areas.

The Social Inclusion team hosted our recent social inclusion festival in November with over 70 events taking place virtually and in person across the County.  The format of this annual festival was reviewed in conjunction with the Social, Community & Equality Strategic Policy Committee during 2020 and many of the events focused on promoting the diversity of the population across the County as week as supporting local organisations to hold local events focused on social inclusion, integration and celebrations of diversity.

(A short video highlighting some of the events that took place during this year's festival is available through the Council's social media channels here: https://twitter.com/sdublincoco/status/1465342349480022017?s=20.)

Implementation of the Council's Integration Strategy and our work in developing the South Dublin Migrant Integration Forum has unfortunately been impacted by Covid-related challenges over the past 18 months but remains a significant priority that we will continue to work on in conjunction with the South Dublin Public Participation Network and other relevant local organisations.

Notwithstanding this, our social inclusion and community development teams are always willing to further explore best practice and innovation by otehr local authorities and agencies in relation to integration initiatives and meet with counterparts across the local authority network on a regular basis and will examine the Fingal initiatives highlighted in the Motion to further improve and refine our work in this area.