LEADER+ Project: Sustaining Community Buildings

This project focuses on the role of community buildings and their sustainability into the future and is being lead by Northern Marches Cymru who called for partners in January 2005. Tuatha Chiarrai Teo and Carlow LEADER joined the project in early 2005, as both companies had given a variety of financial and soft supports to a high ratio of community projects in their areas and felt that the sustainability of community centres which are the backbone of rural service provision was central to future rural development initiatives.

The project is aimed at encouraging the sustainability of community buildings by addressing the training needs of its community building committees, sharing knowledge and experience, and identifying and documenting models of best practice in this regard.

 A steering group was set up in 2005 comprising of representatives from each of the three LEADER companies to carry through the project.  The strategy agreed upon focused on a training programme and a knowledge exchange through visiting similar projects in each LEADER Company area.  The project involved surveying community centre managers and committee members in the three areas to determine common issues and needs and to inform a training programme for the project. 24 participants - 8 from each area - all of whom are community centre managers or committee members were then selected to take part in the project which involved attending training modules and examples of best practice in each participating area. 

Each visit incorporated 2 training modules which were held in local community centres and visits to the other participating community centres in each area.  The first stage of the project took place over 2 days in Carlow in May 2006, Kerry hosted the project in June and the final training session took place in Wrexham in September. The initial research also showed that legal, insurance and HR issues were a priority for centre managers and sessions on these issues were held in Wales and in Ireland in November and December 2006.

The training manual contains notes from all seven training sessions and was designed to give a practical guide to centre managers / committees of all stages of development regardless of whether or not they participated in the project.

All training sessions were hosted by different community centres and all the centres involved in the project hosted the transnational delegation as part of the exchange of ideas.  The communities involved are profiled in the manual for your information and would be happy to help you should you wish to contact them.

Sustaining Community Buildings Manual

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Sustaining Community Buildings Manual - PDF version 2.7Mb

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Lessons Learned

An evaluation of the participant’s views upon completion of the project showed that they found the experience highly beneficial to the ongoing development of their centres.  Despite the variety of the centres involved in terms of size, service delivery and stage of development each respondent felt that they learned a lot from the training sessions and the other centres they visited and are now looking at their existing management strategy with a fresh approach. 

The training modules were cited as being extremely realistic with lots of practical advice that can be used in the every day management of community centres.  Specific examples cited were new fundraising ideas, cost effectiveness, energy efficiency and practical financial advice. 

The benefit of networking with other community centre managers both local and international gave the project an added “X” factor in terms of success.   The participants felt that given their busy schedules many of them were just looking after their own project and were unaware of what was happening in centres just a stones throw away. 

Discussing common problems and ways in which they can be overcome was cited as being the most beneficial part of the project.  The fact that they got to visit each community centre involved in the project also helped as participants could see first hand how different centres achieved their goals.  Many ideas have now been transferred and managers were able to get some relevant and practical advice from their counterparts in terms of strategy, problem solving and sourcing materials.  

Another comment mentioned was seeing first hand something working successfully in another similar centre gave the participant the courage to implement change.  In addition, the fact that each community got to show case their project to a group of thirty helped to instil pride in the host committee as each centre had its own niche to be proud of.

The participants hope to keep in touch with the people they met over the duration of the project and the LEADER Companies involved will be happy to facilitate this process.

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