Drogheda Implementation Board has awarded over €125,000 to 21 community projects in the Drogheda and Laytown/Bettystown area. The projects cover a wide variety of thematic areas aligned to recommendations of the Guerin Report and the Drogheda Report Implementation Plan.
Projects include:
- School based early intervention projects such as developing a ‘Nurture Room’ in Aston Village Educate Together National School and access to Play Therapy supports in St. Bridget and St. Patrick’s National School on Bothar Brugha;
- An innovative Youth Diversion Drug Prevention Programme being delivered by the Foróige Cable Project in Moneymore and Youth Work Ireland Louth’s Boyne Project in Finian’s Park;
- “CourAGEous” an initiative working with young people in schools and community to change attitudes and empower young people to address domestic and sexual violence among their peers led by Drogheda Women and Children’s Refuge;
- A bursary scheme to support young people in Laytown/Bettystown access mainstream activities in their local area through East Coast Family Support Centre;
- A number of sports projects including developing a Drogheda Boxing Team for a cross border tournament involving all three boxing clubs in the Drogheda area;
- “Healing through Creativity” an intensive six-week programme for people who are dealing with the challenge of having loved ones with substance misuse issues delivered by Family Addiction Support Network;
- A collaborative summer music programme led by Music Generation Louth / Meath and supported by Boomerang Youth Café’s Basement Sounds and Drogheda Northside & Holy Family School Completion Programmes;
- “Clean, Create, Celebrate – Southside Pride” a large collaborative community clean-up project in Rathmullen, led by St. Nicholas GFC
“In developing this small grant scheme, we wanted the local community to feel the impact of the resources being given by the Department of Justice to respond to issues identified in the Scoping Report into Community Safety and Wellbeing in Drogheda,” says Chairperson of Drogheda Implementation Board, Michael Keogh. “Enabling community organisations, who know local needs, to identify and be supported in delivering these responses ensures that these funds will have the greatest impact. Many of these projects have potential to be scaled up and delivered in other settings and we congratulate all the successful applicants and look forward to hearing about their successful implementation.”
Drogheda Implementation Board has also indicated that they will be announcing a further initiative under the Employment, Business and Enterprise thematic area of the Drogheda Report Implementation Plan in the coming weeks.
The board was set up in late 2021 by the then Minister for Justice, Heather Humphreys, after the publication of the Geiran Report on Community Safety and Wellbeing in Drogheda by Minister Helen McEntee. The report included over 70 recommendations to improve community safety and wellbeing which were listed as actions in the Drogheda Report Implementation Plan, agreed by Government.
A full list of the successful grant applications is available on www.droghedaimplementationboard.ie
