Twenty years of KCA: Anna Jennings

In this photo of the 1991 Tidy Towns Awards organised by KCA predecessor group Kilcullen Community Development, project coordinator Anna Jennings is second from left front row, with Brendan O'Connell, Richard Enright and Rosaleen McCarney and (back) Joan Forde, Larry Campbell, Vincent Nolan, Dave Prendergast and Des Byrne.

Kilcullen Community Action was founded 21 years ago, on 9 May 2001. The Diary asked a number of people who have been involved with it during the last 20 years to give us some of their thoughts on the organisation. We will be publishing these as they come in, to mark the completion of two decades of KCA work.

I was quite involved in the Tidy Towns group which preceded KCA, writes Anna Jennings. Unfortunately, around the time of the setting up of KCA, I changed jobs and had to opt out of most activities. However, I kept in touch with most of the main players and reasonably up to date on events. I offered my support whenever feasible at events rather than attending regular meetings. 

The thinking behind the establishment of KCA was to broaden the base of the original Tidy Towns group and to appeal to a wider sector of the community of Kilcullen. While Tidy Towns had brought about significant improvement in the overall appearance of the town, it was recognised that attention should be given to other related matters. This mirrored the changes that were being introduced into the judging of the annual Tidy Towns competition — a shift away from endless floral displays to wider issues in the community with increasing emphasis on involvement of children and local groups. 

KCA has made huge strides in these areas over the years — engagement with local schools, creating awareness around climate change and general environmental issues and greater emphasis on the importance of the built environment. It has been particularly successful in getting 'new people' involved in KCA and having a spread of projects that people can opt into. All this has happened while still not losing sight of the original idea of Tidy Towns group — encouraging people to have pride in their neighbourhoods and maximising local amenities.

I think that KCA has a good broad base of people who are committed to it and are really influencing the shape of Kilcullen.

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