Strategies

This document summarises the Dublin Inner City Partnership's strategy for the 2004-2006 period. It builds on the Partnership's track record of successful outcomes from previous plans. It is informed by the six year strategic action plan and takes into account recent changes in the needs of inner city disadvantaged communities.

The main priorities identified by the Partnership for the 2004-2006 period are as follows:

• Developing the equality agenda;
• Developing a rights based approach to addressing socio-economic exclusion;
• Targeting of resources more effectively to flat complexes and communities of need;
• Developing the co-ordination role of the Partnership in response to social exclusion;
• Prioritising particular target groups including ex-prisoners, women returners, workless households, children and young people at risk and out of school, recovering drug users, long-term unemployed, foreign nationals, people with disabilities;
• Engagement with the major social and economic public and private developments to ensure local community gain;
• Consolidating the community infrastructure in the face of reduced resources.

The primary focus for the investment by the Partnership will be to ensure that the local response is targeted at the most disadvantaged individuals, families and communities.

Strategies & Actions

The Partnership's three core strategies for 2001-2006 are

• Supporting access to employment and enterprise;
• Promoting community regeneration;
• Tackling educational disadvantage.

The three specific measures in this three year Implementation Plan are

• Services for the unemployed;
• Community Development;
• Community-based Youth Initiatives - Reducing Educational Disadvantage.

Measure A - Services for the Unemployed

Actions under this measure have been developed in recognition of the strong correlation between unemployment and poverty and the fact that many local residents are underemployed in low-paying jobs, which impacts on their quality of life. The operation of the Inner City Employment Service will be the principal means of enhancing employment options for local people. There is also a need to support the development of new businesses, especially within the social economy.

Strategy 1 - Training, Mediation & Guidance for Employment Actions

• Associated Actions
  • Pre-employment training for women;
  • Information technology training for local residents;
  • Inner City Employment Service.

Strategy 2 - Social and Economic Development

• Associated Actions
  • Targeted regeneration programmes.

Strategy 3 - Enterprise Support

• Associated Actions
  • Pre-start up enterprise support;
  • New enterprise support.

Measure B - Community Development

Community development is about working with local communities that have suffered degeneration as a result of neglect and the withdrawal of public and private investment. This measure aims to bring about a social and economic development process and to strategically target investment at areas of need. Community development should improve the quality of life of the community and bring meaningful benefits to local people through a holistic approach that integrates issues such as health and welfare, education and training, employment and enterprise, environmental improvement, arts and culture. Actions under this measure have been developed in response to the exclusion of local communities from decision-making processes and social problems such as drug misuse and scarcity of resources.

Strategy 1 - Promoting Social Integration

• Associated Actions
  • Facilitating the participation of low-income local authority tenants in local regeneration programmes.

Strategy 2 - Supporting the co-ordination of a community-based social inclusion infrastructure

• Associated Actions
  • Maintaining a community based infrastructure to support the implementation of effective measures to combat poverty and social exclusion;
  • This includes a specific focus for work on immigrant integration issues.

Strategy 3 - Capacity development, technical assistance and training

• Associated Actions
  • The provision of technical advice and support to local authority tenants and other social inclusion community-based organisations;
  • Delivery of capacity training to local tenents to enhance their participation in the management of their estates.

Strategy 4 - Research and policy development to support the sustainable regeneration of disadvantaged communities

• Associated actions
  • Developing knowledge based social development proposals as a means to lobby for increased public social investment;
  • This includes an allocation for specific initiatives targeting people with a disability and former prisoners.

Measure C - Community-based Youth initiatives: tackling Educational disadvantage

The objective of this measure includes the promotion of preventative education addressing gaps in provision, removing barriers to participation supporting parental and community involvement, specific targeting of resources to high need groups and expanding quality early education opportunities for pre school children. Actions outlined under Measure C have been developed in response to continuing high levels of educational disadvantage in the inner city. Overall it aims to develop a mechanism for the improved co-ordination of educational in the local area so that services can respond quickly and effectively to the specific educational needs of local people

Strategy 1 - Integration and developing local educational services

• Associated actions
  • Primary level schools integration;
  • Childcare network.

Strategy 2 - Preventing early school leaving and promoting education development

• Associated actions
  • Second level retention program;
  • Skills enhancement through IT provision in local schools.

Strategy 3 - Promoting developmental youth work

• Associated actions
  • Targeting youth at risk.

Strategy 4 - Promoting equality and rights-based approaches to education

• Associated actions
  • Capacity building in developing equality and rights based approaches to education;
  • Strengthening of community education sector in the inner city.

last updated: May 17, 2006

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© Copyright DICP 2006