“Community development saved my life” claims Senator

Senator Eileen Flynn, addressing SIF 2023, said she “started as an activist at 18”, yet never thought she would end up working where she does now. It saved her life, she said.

“I never wanted to be a community development worker or a youth worker,” she told the 130 attendees.

“I thought community development was all about sitting around drinking cups of tea, but that is part of the work, bringing in somebody, speaking with them, showing them the light, giving advice.”

“A lot of people who are in addiction, homeless, on the edges of Irish society, they don’t need your help – they need support to be empowered in their own lives to work for themselves and for their own communities,” she said, calling for more investment in community development.

She herself went back to college at 25 years of age, as a mature student, and graduated with a degree in community development.

“I felt my passion to do something in life that would bring about social change, not just for the Traveller community, or for myself.

Community development is not about change for the few, but for the many.”

Run-ins with Department

She thanked the Department of Social Protection for the invitation to speak, because she had “many run-ins with the Department trying to bring about meaningful change for people suffering from economic disadvantage”.

She spoke about empowering people and taking collective action where she grew up, in Labre Park, Ballyfermot, the country’s oldest halting site in Ireland.

Where previously people with a problem with the local authority would ask community workers to make a call, now they make those calls themselves. “That’s empowerment,” she said. “Community development creates the spaces for it to happen.”

“We don’t see the change in a week or a year,” she said, but it was evident.

Campaign win

She recalled being part of a campaign led by Migrant Rights Centre Ireland to get state recognition for undocumented people.

“In 2022, they got documented. I was so privileged to be part of that campaign – to learn about the others in our society. It brought about change for a few thousand migrants in our country,” she recalled.

The SIF discussed how to overcome ageism and how older people could live life to the full. Senator Flynn viewed the discussion from a Traveller perspective: “When I think of older people – I’m 33 – if I got a health evaluation they’d mark me down as a 45-year-old. Travellers don’t have the privilege of living into our 80s and 90s.”

Jobs are a route out of poverty

Another theme looked at through SIF was education and employment. “A long-term sustainable job gives you a route out of poverty,” said Senator Flynn. “And community development does that work with poor communities.”

Recalling how for some years after 2009 the community sector was “cut, cut, cut” she called for more investment now. “We don’t value community development work, yet when community development is done right, 150% it can work and does work.

Considering the impact of the cost of living crisis on communities, she said, “Now more than ever we should be investing in community development work.” She also pointed out, “It is a profession. People study it for years and it does change lives.”

And it goes beyond simply changing lives. “For me, community development saved my life. It saves many Travellers’ lives – when people see a way out, see they do have a voice.”

Pointing to successes because of community development in St Michael’s Estate, Inchicore, she said, “It can work, it is a way out of poverty.”

In regard to inclusion, she said instead of just talking about it, “we should be seeing inclusion – in the Dáil, in supermarkets, in our hospitals and all our services.”

She drew attention to the launch recently of the National Action Plan Against Racism by Minister of State, Joe O’Brien. “We also need to see an equality strategy,” she concluded.