SICAP Offaly - promoting social inclusion and leadership across communities

The Social Inclusion Community Activation programme (SICAP) is a five year programme 2018-2022 that is implemented by Offaly Local Development Company (OLDC). Offaly Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) oversees, co-ordinates and manages the delivery of SICAP in Offaly. The LCDC is an independent committee of Offaly County Council established for the purposes of developing, co-ordinating and implementing a coherent and integrated approach to local and community development. The Local Authority provides strategic, policy and administrative support to the LCDC. SICAP operates county wide with a wide range of supports to communities and individuals through a range of programmes.

Supporting community groups to identify their needs, build their capacity to respond as a group to meet those needs is the cornerstone of the OLDC approach. This involves working closely with representatives of the community, state agencies and voluntary organisations to help communities and individuals to get the best outcomes and to develop leaders in communities to implement their plans, 177 groups have been supported in the current programme. Cllr. Declan Harvey Chair, Offaly Local Community Development Committee (LCDC), points out that ‘SICAP is about building community and individual capacity and that is where real change happens’.  He acknowledged the tremendous engagement work SICAP undertakes and highlighted that Offaly has now achieved over 10,000 interventions with clients since the programme began in 2018. 

Groups in Offaly face many issues and in particular during the last year they were challenged by Covid-19 restrictions and changing needs in their communities. SICAP Offaly supported communities in 2020 through delivery of food, fuel and other provisions to those in need. SICAP supports the Offaly Healthy Homes project which delivers meals to approximately 450 residents in Offaly on a weekly basis. The programme ran an extensive ‘Communities together yet apart’ programme across 35 residential estates and three nursing homes over 14 weeks in 2020. Offaly Disability Equality Network is supported by SICAP to work with agencies in Offaly to raise awareness of issues affecting people with disabilities. Declan Costello OLDC says ‘we have been meeting online in 2021, making progress on a number of projects and now look forward to another successful ‘Make Way Day’ in September 2021’.

SICAP works with community leaders to support communities in Offaly through training and mentoring, community planning and development of five year plans. It is through this process that Walsh Island developed its five-year plan in 2020. Liam Carty says that’ community planning has definitely brought our community groups together to work on common goals to make our community a better place to live’. By working together Paul Flint has seen that ‘the planning process facilitated by OLDC and SICAP provided a different approach to uncover resources and skills within the community’. Walsh Island Community Action Network are now working to implement the first projects to develop a ‘connected community’ in Walsh Island.

Through the SICAP work in communities, one issue is consistently highlighted; the needs for supports for children and young people that are struggling to progress while still in school or having left school or who simply don’t have the same opportunities or supports as they navigate through these early life stages. This has resulted in a wide range of locally based initiatives such as youth programmes, transfer programmes from primary to secondary school, homework clubs, summer camps, equine assisted learning, parenting supports. These programmes aim to support and develop young people to be a part of their community, to be involved in decision making and ultimately to become young leaders that advocate for their communities in Offaly and over 3500 children have engaged in programmes since 2018.

SICAP supports community groups across Offaly to build and increase their capacity to develop and maintain their social enterprises, for example health and safety advice and working with voluntary boards around the governance code. This support adds value to the work that is happening on the ground with Social Enterprises. The link with OLDC also allows for integrating and adding into existing work with relevant groups in the Leader, Tus/RSS and building healthy community programmes, all implemented by OLDC.

Working with communities has enabled SICAP to develop new programmes to respond to other needs, such as one-to-one support and guidance, provision of social, personal and skills based courses, career and business coaching. All of these are designed to help people who are unemployed or disadvantaged in one way or another to overcome barriers and challenges and take steps that will lead to sustained progress in their lives, SICAP has supported 1000 people to access training in this programme’s lifetime.

One such programme is ‘Discover Your Strengths’. Discover Your Strengths introduces concepts of personal development to participants in an informal and engaging way. On completion of this programme individuals are equipped with practical tools to assist them with growth and development in various aspects of their lives. A recent participant of Discover Your Strengths described the programme as “informative and thought-provoking”.

SICAP one-to-one employment and career supports also provide an opportunity for clients to discuss their needs, get to know themselves and their interests, skills and abilities, and map a way forward that works for them and their individual starting points towards employment. Vanessa McGuinness a SICAP employment support worker based in Tullamore says ‘we know ‘one size’ simply does not fit all!  This is why we pride ourselves on providing a personalised one to one support service.  SICAP is all about the person, focusing in on what they want from life, the direction they want to go and pace to get there.  No matter how big or small the goal, we know by providing the right supports to each individual, they will achieve their full potential’.

For long term unemployed people considering self-employment, a short ‘realities of self-employment’ programme offers people the opportunity to see what is really involved before they commit and this is supported with one-to-one life and business coaching sessions. Other longer-term enterprise supports are also available within OLDC for those who could benefit from further support in setting up their business. This integrated way of working means that Offaly SICAP can provide that ‘one stop shop’ service that people require, supporting more than 130 people to self-employment since 2018.

SICAP Offaly provides supports to programmes including MenPower (formerly known as Mojo); a men’s wellness programme for those experiencing distress from unemployment related issues. This 12 week programme welcomes men who are ready to take control of their lives and to engage in a holistic programme for change, with outcomes ranging from education, training, volunteering to employment or self-employment. Social prescribing also welcomes people that need help to connect to social activities and groups, community groups, volunteering and other areas of interest. SICAP has a range of rural isolation initiatives and community activation and wellbeing programmes that operate across county Offaly and incorporate walking, talking and social contacts. These programmes all provide opportunities for people to get involved, to connect, grow their skills, develop new roles in the community and lead groups themselves.

Brendan O Loughlin, CEO Offaly Local Development Company says that “Leading and supporting communities and individuals throughout the Covid pandemic has been the main focus of the SICAP programme. The current lockdown has been particularly challenging for our clients. Developing their resilience and coping skills and involving isolated people in group activities is a key priority for the staff of OLDC”.

The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) 2018 – 2022 provides funding to tackle poverty and social exclusion through local engagement and partnerships between disadvantaged individuals, community organisations and public sector agencies. The programme is administered by Pobal and funded by the Irish Government through the Department of Rural and Community Development. It also receives funding from the European Social Fund under the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020 and Ireland’s European Structural and Investment Funds.

Priority is given to disadvantaged communities, people living in social isolation, children and families, young people, women, lone parents, people with disabilities, travellers, Roma, unemployed people, low income workers, those disengaged from the labour market including carers, homeless people and new communities.

SICAP programmes in Offaly are delivered in conjunction with HSE, Offaly PPN, Healthy Ireland, Offaly Sports Partnership, Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board, CYPSC, TUSLA, Youth Services, DEASP, Foroige, Offaly Traveller Movement, Garda Youth Diversion programmes, Schools transfer programmes and schools completion, Offaly based schools, Gardai, SafeFood, Tidy Towns, Community and voluntary groups and local community leaders throughout county Offaly and acknowledges the funding and other supports from these partners.

To find out more about SICAP supports visit the OLDC website www.offalyldc.ie or check out OLDC’s Facebook page. For enquiries you can also ring 0579352467 or email info@offalyldc.ie