€3 Million Funding For Innovative Community Safety Projects Announced.

• Waterford LEADER Partnership will receive €149,820 for the South East Farming Pilot, which will operate across South Tipperary, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford.
• €3 million will be allocated to 30 successful community projects under the Community Safety Innovation Fund.
• Funding will invest the proceeds of crime back into building stronger, safer communities.
• Projects focused on holistic, community based responses to anti-social behaviour and crime.

The Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee, T.D. has today announced the allocation of just over €3 million worth of funding to 30 projects which are adopting projects to improve safety in their communities.

Grants have been awarded under this fund to organisations or community groups that have innovative proposals to improve community safety and have not been able to access other sources of funding.

Under Budget 2024, €7.9m will be allocated towards community safety initiatives, including €3.75m for the Community Safety Innovation Fund, which is an increase of almost €1 million on last year.

Speaking today, Minister McEntee stated: “I’ve said consistently that the people who are best placed to know and respond to local safety issues are communities themselves. It’s vital that we empower our communities to proactively address safety concerns and in the process build stronger, safer communities.
This fund reflects the continued successes of An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau seizing the ill-gotten gains of criminals. That’s why I’m delighted that we have been able to increase the size of this fund to €3.75 million under Budget 2024.
Putting this money back into the community is a really tangible way of showing that there can be a direct link between the activities of law enforcement and improved feelings of community safety.”

Some of the themes focused on by this year’s successful applicants include projects aimed at reducing anti-social behaviour, improving feelings of safety in the community, supporting victims of sexual and domestic violence, promoting pro-social behaviour through education and sport and supporting those experiencing drug-related intimidation.

Minister McEntee will today visit two projects who will be receiving funding from this year’s Community Safety Innovation Fund. The Minster will visit The Esker Project in Athlone, who will receive €101,903 funding for a Domestic Abuse Community Awareness and Training project.
This project aims to create awareness of the prevalence and signs of domestic abuse and to build capacity within the community to respond appropriately and effectively to create safer communities for victims of gender based violence and domestic abuse.

This will be achieved by engaging various groups in the community to become Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) aware. Workshops, training, and support will be offered to employers, education settings, statutory agencies, and community groups among others to become DVA aware and responsive.

Minister McEntee will also visit the ‘Be Safe in Your Space’ project, run by Cultúr Celebrating Diversity in Navan, Co. Meath, who are strengthening relationships between migrant communities and An Garda Síochána.
This project, which will receive €150,000, seeks to improve relationships and build trust between An Garda Síochána and migrant communities, while simultaneously raising the migrant communities’ awareness of rights and laws in Ireland.

In addition, it seeks to give migrant parents the skills and confidence to deal with antisocial behaviour in their children, by activating parents’ ability to recognise signs of said behaviour (including on social media) and to give parents the necessary practical parenting advice.
It also seeks to create a robust community strategy to sustainably tackle these by engaging migrants living in local urban conurbations, and Gardaí working in community, drug traffic and detective units.

Other examples of successful applications include €147,175 to Bohemian Football Club for the North Inner City Sporting Alliance Programme.
The NIC Sporting Alliance Programme aims to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in the NIC area with a core focus of establishing a formal network of sports clubs and organisations. Underpinning this project is:

• A multicultural educational resource designed for children aged 9-12 championed by sports ambassadors and delivered in primary schools and sports within the NIC area.
• Workshops/Seminars delivered to all clubs in the Alliance.
  Two large scale annual showcase events for the community/clubs.
• Lusk Community Council in Co Dublin will receive €150,000 for its Creative Lusk project.

This will seek to creatively address anti-social issues using arts, curiosity and innovation in the town to connect with the “hard to reach” youths and present alternative role and peer models for the youth to engage with.

The Waterford LEADER Partnership will receive €149,820 for the South East Farming Pilot, which will operate across South Tipperary, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford
It seeks to provide vulnerable young people with a social/care farming placement on a social farm in the southeast 2 days a week for 70 weeks. It will working with the youth diversion projects in the southeast region to identify potential participants.

A full list of successful grants showing Applicants, their Projects and Locations are shown hereunder:

All grants under the Community Safety Innovation Fund are subject to the terms and conditions as set out in the Funding Call.

Minister McEntee continued “One of the objectives of this fund is to encourage the development of innovative ways to improve community safety.
Each successful project has detailed how best the community wants to prevent crime and their proposals reflect community priorities and local safety issues.
My anticipation and hope is that this fund will continue to grow into the future, but also that the learnings and best practices adopted by these projects can be shared and utilised in other communities facing similar safety concerns.”