We believe that future success depends on investment in people, especially the young...

Introduction

Co-operation and Partnership

We at Creggan Enterprises Limited (CEL) are working to address the social and economic needs of the local community. It is our belief that community economic development such as we promote is a vital component in the creation of a sustainable and healthy neighbourhood.

If areas such as Creggan, Bogside and surrounding districts are to have any meaningful economic opportunities, we must operate as a unit with all sectors supporting and sustaining the community. Experience has shown that it makes little sense to build houses or create a new housing development scheme that is isolated from employment opportunities. We must develop a common understanding of the nature of a community and its problems, and create a vision based on the premise that local development should be community-led.

The regeneration of economically depressed areas like Creggan must combine economic, physical, social and human development through local ownership of initiatives within their localities.

Through its activities, and through local ownership of redundant land at Bligh's Lane, CEL has created the successful Ráth Mór Business and Community Enterprise Centre, and ensured that all of the benefits from this Social Economy initiative are reinvested in the local community and its people.

Spirit of Self-help

Success is dependent on effective co-operation in which all social partners share a common goal and vision. They must target resources and use their skills, expertise and collective power to build a sustainable local economy and community.

The future lies with our children and with those groups who have the foresight to see what fundamental changes in policy and thinking are required to address the needs of communities such as Creggan. CEL believes that future success depends on investment in people – especially the young. Many of the current policies for promoting job creation and tackling unemployment and social exclusion fail to meet the real needs of families and the unemployed. Because of such failures, many communities can become disaffected and excluded. However, over the past 50 years, local groups, schools and the people of Creggan have shown the determination and the vision to promote and fight for their area. Many lessons can be learnt from the residents of Creggan, and the spirit of self-help which best describes their endeavours.

We believe that our success will further help to place Creggan on the agenda of government agencies, city council, policy makers and planners. We will continue to argue for what we believe to be the best stategies for targeting resources and building equality of opportunity for the local community.

Thumb Print: Pathways to Employment Programme

It is our considered view that unemployed people want work – a simple fact of life often overlooked by those organisations that debate the needs of the local economy and the needs of the labour market. Proper employment provides individuals with a sense of dignity, motivation and, most importantly, a route out of welfare dependency and poverty.

However, we need new thinking and assistance in overcoming the experience of rejection and exclusion caused by long-term unemployment. Many long-term unemployed have become so disengaged with the lack of employment opportunities and the lack of experience within the world of work that it is a major task to convince them that any new initiative will be worthwhile.

But they know their communities need investment; they want to see improvements and the renewal of their communities so any initiative should present a new way forward to get them back into work.

The main aim of the Thumb Print: Pathways to Employment Programme we have developed is to create waged or salaried full or part-time jobs with training for all participating unemployed people for a 50-week time period, and where the end product of their work has a direct social purpose towards the development of the individual worker, the participating organisation and the community itself.

The distinguishing features of the Thumb Print Programme are:

• Thumb Print placements are limited to unemployed people and are a pathway back to inclusion in the local labour market

• Thumb Print operates in the same way as the full labour market – selection for jobs, work discipline, contract of employment and rate for the job

• Provision of services, or improved infrastructure, for the benefit of the community and where this work leads to the process of local renewal and revival.
The differences between Thumb Print and other programmes are:

• The programme contributes to local renewal and revival and job creation

• Greater local control and management of resources

• Education, training and skill development.

Creggan Enterprises – working in partnership with the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation, the Local Strategy Partnership and local employers – have helped develop a framework for job opportunities to create added value and provide the provider of the service with stability to operate an effective back-to-work model designed to provide training, job search, and any other required support, such as pre-vocational or core skills training.

Ráth Mór 50+ – Combating Social Isolation

Ráth Mór 50+ is an independent, voluntary, older people’s group established by Creggan Enterprises based at Ráth Mór which provides a wide range of recreational activities and social events for the over 50s.

The aim is to combat social isolation for men and women who are 50+ and to provide a venue where they can enjoy a range of activities and events all year round, and for them to enjoy the full potential of their later years by remaining mentally, physically and socially active. Group activities are very much driven by the participants who bring a wealth of ideas and skills. It all about fun, social contact, new challenges, new opportunities, active citizenship, companionship and building an inclusive and vibrant community.

Conal McFeely
Development Executive