Muintir Na Tíre Community Comeback

Description

Muintir Na Tíre’s first Community Comeback event took place in Monivea, Co. Galway on 26 May 2023.

The event was organised by Gerard Costello, Community Alert Development Officer in the Western region in partnership with Monivea Community Alert and took place in Fr. Sammon Centre from 11:00 to 14:00.

Attendees were greeted on arrival with a long entrance hall, flush with the recogniable Muintir Na Tíre banners. This lead to a communal dining area which was set out with large group tables and chairs and where tea, coffee and light refreshments were provided by the community.

Inside the main hall area, 35 agencies and groups had set out their stalls with their own pull up banners and information and merchandise laid out on their tables. After an introduction from Muintir and An Garda Síochána the crowds wandered around, engaging with the different providers, finding out how they could help them, socialising and networking.

Some practical workshops took place, such as Croí providing blood pressure testing (which was constantly busy) and a game of walk football and pole walking organised
by the Sports Partnership. Outside, AGS had a property marking tent and the Fire Service
had a fire engine and table with items such as smoke alarms.

The event was very busy, with the hall being full fall afternoon with approx. 300 people attending over the course of the afternoon. The atmosphere was extremely friendly, social and relaxed, with many positive comments about the event, how well organised it was and what a lovely sense of community there was. Many people commented they would like to have such an event in their own locality.

Since this event in Monivea, Muintir, in partnership with Community Alert Groups across the Country, has hosted several Community Comebacks and continue to see how valuable such events, which bring together service providers and organisations and service users and senior members of our communities.

Aim of Initiative

Community Comeback aims to encourage community groups to reactivate and re-engage post pandemic and, in partnership with Community Alert groups, the initiative has taken place in several communities across the Country.

Community Alert is a Crime Prevention, Community Safety and Care programme operating in over 1400 communities across the Country. The aim of the Community Comeback is to touch upon all three of these elements of Community Alert.

The events aim to provide an opportunity for community groups to get re-established and for senior and vulnerable residents in those communities to have access to information, assistance and social and networking opportunities.

We also aim to give organisations and opportunity to give support and information to those who need it most that they may not otherwise have had direct access to.

Who is it aimed at

Audience

Everyone in the community but in particular those who are senior or vulnerable.

By partnering with Community Alert groups, who are trusted, have an excellent local knowledge and operate under the ethos of neighbourliness, we were able to identify those who may not otherwise have been targeted.

The concept and approach to our Community Comeback events are quite different from other flagship events that are held in larger towns, and in venues such as hotels and conference centres. While incredibly useful, these events do not always attract the people who most need the supports being advertised. In that regard, we are delighted to be continuing our work with small, but established, Community Alert Groups across the country to identify those who need support, social participation and inclusion and the services that can help them.

Participants

Organisation who offer services for the proposed audience who they may not have otherwise have had the opportunity to meet and engage with.

3 Steps critical to success

1. Identify the Need and the Solution

   Post Covid we knew that Community Alert groups needed to be re-engaged and that senior and vulnerable people in their communities needed more support than ever. We also knew that services were struggling to access the most vulnerable due to isolation during the pandemic. We identified that a social event such as this one would be an excellent opportunity to address these needs.

2. Identify the Stakeholders

   Community Alert, by it’s nature of being a programme focused on Crime Prevention, Community Safety, and Care and by being established and trusted in 1400 communities across the Country, was the perfect conduit to host these events. Identifying Community Alert groups to take part was done in partnership with our Community Alert Development Officers who know their regions incredibly well. That allowed them to engage with their group and with services and organisations operating in those areas. Once stakeholders were engaged and supported, the events ran very smoothly.

3. Host the event and measure success

   In the run up, with stakeholders engaged, the events came together through a lot of effort on behalf of the communities and the organisations themselves. The administration was done by each CADO who facilitated the organisation etc.

   On the day of the event, success was measured by engagement and footfall but also through conducting a survey, which went on to inform future events, the results were, as follows;

   – 94% thought the event was excellent, with the remainder saying it was good.
   – 78% thought the venue was excellent, with the remainder saying it was good.
   – Most attendees heard about the event directly from the organiser.
   – Most travelled by car.
   – There was a mix of what people considered the most useful topic
   – Only one attendee said they would attend future events
   – 61% of attendees were aged over 60
   – The highest category of attendee was that of carer
   – Potential future topics included grants, pensions, and technology for older persons.

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. Engagement:
   Isolation due to covid has been the biggest challenges faced by communities in most people’s lifetimes. Re-engaging post-covid was a huge challenge but one we knew needed to be addressed. This was perhaps the biggest challenge in operating the Community Comeback events but also Community Alert programme on a whole. However, this is the exact reason why the Comebacks needed to happen and they have served their purpose tenfold in that regard. We overcame this by finding one or two people in each community willing to work with us to make the events happen.
2. Logistics:
   Dealing with 30+ services and organisations to attend.
   Planning a date and finding a suitable venue.
   Making sure that you are meeting the needs of the attendees with access, information, layout etc.
   We overcame this by creating a template for success and giving the Community Alert Development Officer the time to organise the logistics. We also used each event to learn what we could do better.
3. Funding
   We would like to roll out the events even further however at a cost of approx. €500 per event, finances is a barrier for us as a charity.
   To overcome this, we are looking into funding sources that would be the right fit for such events.

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. Community Alert Groups re-engaged post Covid and given real and tangible opportunities to practice the ethos of neighbourliness and implement the purpose of Community Alert: Crime Prevention, Community Safety and Care
2. Senior and vulnerable community members identified, engaged and given the opportunity to access services which will directly benefit and improve their lives. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, an opportunity to socialise, network and re-engage with their communities which was significantly hampered during the pandemic.
3. Stakeholders, services and organisation given an opportunity to engage with communities and individuals about the valuable services they offer and to give advice, information and support face-to-face with people they may never have had an opportunity to engage with otherwise.

   Additionally here, services had the opportunity to network with one another and to establish relationships and partnerships that better support their service users.