Minister for Community Development, Integration and Charities, Joe O’Brien TD, made a visit to Recycle IT on March 6th. Board members and the staff team were on hand to greet the minister and share details on the work of Recycle IT, a social enterprise striving to create training and employment opportunities through the recycling of old, damaged, or unused electrical and electronic equipment collected from homes and organisations.
During the visit to Recycle IT, Minister Joe O’Brien made time for an important announcement, the Minister said “I am delighted to launch a new Call for Applications under the Community Services Programme (CSP). The purpose of this funding is to support social enterprises and community/voluntary organisations with an additional strand focusing on circular economy projects that are either Traveller led or ones that will primarily employ members of the Traveller community.”
Funding of €1 million will be available for this new call in 2023 which will provide new organisations with an opportunity to access support to employ additional staff in line with the programme’s re-defined sub-programmes and new vision, which were approved in 2022. Pre-application support workshops will be rolled out to ensure organisations are fully equipped with the information that they need to apply for this funding. As a first step, an Information Event will be held for organisations interested in applying for the programme on the week beginning 20th March 2023. Details will be shared on the Pobal CSP webpage and on the Department of Rural and Community Development social media channels. Organisations that wish to be notified about the workshops can also contact csp@pobal.ie. Following the pre-application supports, organisations will be invited to submit a short concept note to Pobal outlining their proposal for assessment against the objectives of the call and organisations will then be informed whether their proposal fits with the call.
The Minister continued “The CSP supports a range of services, facilities and activities that enhance the quality of life for specific disadvantaged groups within our communities. This open call will be essential in broadening the range of services available and bringing new organisations onto the programme. I am delighted to say that we will also have a range of support workshops to assist those organisations in applying to the CSP Programme.”
