#SicapStories

“I’ll be honest. When we started I was very naïve. I thought we’d have a playground by Christmas." - Maria Fleming, Moate resident

The international social enterprise, Common Purpose, is bringing its Legacy Programme to Dublin this October and thanks to the Department of Rural and Community Development and Local Development Companies across the capital, it will feature strong participation from young people involved in community initiatives across the city.

Ireland has won a United Nations award for its response at community level to the Covid pandemic. The UN received over 350 entries from 58 countries for 10 awards - with Ireland winning one for its Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP).

Up to half the 600-plus people who attended a jobs fair in Co. Kerry on Monday were refugees or asylum-seekers. Interviews for some took place on the spot and employers, job-seekers and the organisers - focused as they are on integration - rightly declared the event a success.

Facebook is suppressing video news about community groups who engage in anti-racism work and who support vulnerable young people and older people, unemployment people, migrants and Travellers. The same organisation that claims to take online hate seriously is blocking inoffensive news about grassroots organisations who are busy tackling discrimination and hate on the ground.

Lantern festivals are popular the world over - from Hong Kong to Banjul to the Rhineland - and now they’ve seen the light in West Limerick! Askeaton’s ‘Féile Laindéir’  brought the River Deel to life in ways never before seen.

In Wexford - as  featured in our long read here -  community workers under SICAP made people welcome during a pandemic. The same good community work is happening across the country, from Inchicore to West Mayo. It is but one of many #SicapStories. It would make for an ideal television series, as amateur film-makers are proving.