Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys has today (Friday, May 17) announced funding of almost €700,000 to support “town teams” across the country.
The first ever “Town Team Support Fund” will deliver funding for communities that have never had a town team before or those which have only been recently established.
Under the announcement a total of 68 towns will be supported with €10,000 in funding per location.
Town teams
A town team is a group of local residents, business people, community representatives and other stakeholders from diverse backgrounds.
They have a unique position in the community to become ‘local experts’ in their area and to take a lead on the development of interventions that can make positive long-term changes for the town.
The funding may be used to support the establishment and/or development of town teams, and to better understand the unique features of towns.
The projects will be managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development funded Town Regeneration Officers across the country.
These officers provide technical, communications, administrative and project management assistance to town teams and supporting key stakeholders in accessing available funding.
The full list of town teams that will receive funding are as follows:
Minister Humphreys said that the aim of the initiative is to make our rural towns more vibrant places.
“This is all about tackling vacancy, combatting dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres.
“Through this initiative, we are recognising the importance of having vibrant towns, which are places to live in, work in, visit, and raise a family in.
“Town teams are key to rural regeneration and I am delighted that this funding will support the development of these teams and the creation of teams where they currently don’t exist.
“Amongst other things, these Town Teams play a vital role in helping communities access the wide range of funding available from my Department under various scheme,” she said.
This funding follows on from the recent announcement of €780,000 which will support the development of a Town Centre First Plan in a further 26 towns.
These plans represent the communities own vision for the future of their towns.