5 May 2018
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project CLG Cork. Pictured is Brenda Corcoran Chairperson and Katherine Dullaghan, Resource Centre Manager and Development Worker and David Alade Caretaker.
Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project CLG Cork. Pictured is Brenda Corcoran Chairperson and Katherine Dullaghan, Resource Centre Manager and Development Worker.
Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project CLG Cork. Pictured is Brenda Corcoran Chairperson and Katherine Dullaghan, Resource Centre Manager and Development Worker and David Alade Caretaker.
Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project CLG Cork. Pictured is Brenda Corcoran Chairperson and Katherine Dullaghan, Resource Centre Manager and Development Worker.
The National Lottery has revealed that hundreds of projects, individuals, clubs and organisations from Co. Cork received a total of €23,046,702 in Good Causes funding in 2017.
This funding is crucial to individuals, projects and communities across the county in the areas of sport, health, arts and heritage. One project which is feeling the positive impact of National Lottery funding is the Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project.
From family bus trips to the seaside at Youghal, to the provision of childcare services and pathways to education, the Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project has been offering a helping hand to a Cork community in need since 1990.
Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project has helped children to play and adults to learn. The Project has also supported older people to live safely and independently through the administration of the Senior Alert Scheme (SAS). This scheme, overseen by Pobal, received a €9,000 contribution from the National Lottery Good Causes pot in 2015.
On these very streets where Roy Keane learned his footballing craft, today youngsters in Mayfield are also finding their way in a world filled with just as many challenges as opportunities.
Brenda Corcoran, Chairperson of Mayfield CPD said: “For three decades, our mission is to respond to the needs of our local people by providing support, training and opportunities to develop individuals and groups in the Mayfield community. We work with people in a non-discriminatory way and encourage everyone to reach their full potential in a safe, open, friendly and accessible environment and this is something we have remained true to since day one”.
Based in Mayfield Community Resource Centre in the Cork City suburb, it runs an Adult Learning Project that offers a selection of courses in the community in a relaxed and friendly setting. And in 2017 it was included in the UNESCO-recognised Learning Neighbourhoods programme.
The Adult Learning Project has literally changed lives.
An innovative project, which acts as a first contact and/or stepping stone for adults who have been excluded for one reason or another from the educational system, it works with participants to develop self-confidence and initiate the process of education or further training opportunities.
The project also provides ‘Mayfield Matters’ – a local community newsletter produced in Mayfield CDP Community Resource Centre by volunteers with the support of the CDP staff. Two thousand copies of each issue are produced and distributed free of charge through local churches and businesses every two months.
Rainbow Community Crèche, a CDP initiative, provides part-time low-cost childcare for children from six months to five years prior to preschool.
Each stage of life is valued from Early Years to Older Years. The Senior Alert Scheme funded by the National Lottery is vital in enabling Mayfield CDP to support older people to live in their own homes in the community.
National Lottery CEO, Dermot Griffin, said: “We are delighted to announce that more than €23 million in National Lottery Good Causes funding went to such projects and clubs in Co. Cork last year. It is great to hear the stories of the impact and change that Good Causes funding is making and the impact this group is making on both old and young in the local community.”
“The National Lottery was set up over 30 years ago with the express purpose of raising funds for Good Causes and in that period more than €5 billion has been raised and distributed through government departments to organisations, projects and individual’s all over Ireland in in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage and the Irish language. By supporting our games people are also supporting their communities.”
“Good Causes funding has played an important role in the development of the country over three decades and has helped to define Ireland, our communities and our culture.”
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on National Lottery games go back to Good Causes. Last year alone over €225 million was raised by the National Lottery and its players for Good Causes all over Ireland, equating to about €616,000 per day.
