Social enterprise skills opportunity
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| Lullymore Heritage & Discovery Park. Pic: Brian Byrne. |
The Kildare Social Enterprise Programme will be run by Clann Credo and the Irish Social Finance Centre, in association with the county's Leader Partnership.
Participants will learn business planning, finance and funding, marketing and communications as well as measuring social impact. The programme is free.
It will run from May to November. Sessions will be mainly in the evening, with some Saturdays. There will be a break for the month of August.
Examples of social enterprise in Kildare include the Lullymore Heritage and Discovery Park, McCawley Place in Naas, and Suncroft Community Centre. Among others are men’s sheds, community crèches and various community tourism projects.
The sector is nationally worth over €1.9bn a year and employs over 33,000 people. "The Programme might trigger some ideas for some local organisations," says Kilcullen's Orla O'Neill, who has direct experience in the sector. "The Community Centre has a lot of potential for a social enterprise, like the Community Childcare Centre."
An information evening on the Programme for anyone with a social enterprise idea will be held on Tuesday next, 10 April, at 7pm in the Kildare Leader offices at Jigginstown Commercial Centre in Naas. There will be a second opportunity on 18 April in the Clanard Court Hotel in Athy.
More information can be found, and registration of interest in the Programme made, at countykildarelp.ie or contact Frances Farrell at frances@countykildarelp.ie, or by phone contact Brian Kelly on 045 895450.
