TIPPERARY INSTITUTE- A COMMUNITY RESOURCE ? EDEN Presentation

Tipperary Institute Ireland’s only Third-level institute particularly dedicated to rural development in its many forms. Mission - promoting sustainable rural development developing and delivering degree-level courses -60% working with partner organisations on particular projects and conducting research 40%

Mission: in Founding documents 1. To link support for community development and business development with education activity at third level 2. To provide a range of supports to business, voluntary, community and public organisations through a variety of means including research, mentoring, training and education, consultancy and support

Mission: in Founding documents To be a resource to the people of Tipperary and its region To promote social inclusion To promote and be a beacon of sustainable development To make use of developing technologies in its work To promote the personal and professional development of its employees To develop distributed methods of teaching and learning insofar as that is compatible with good teaching practice

Examples: Community planning Carnegie RARP : Tipperary Institute and partners in County Offaly ( West Offaly Partnership and Offaly County Council) initiated a programme of community planning with three communities to pilot an overall county approach to integrated area planning possible use of Community Planning in the statutory planning process TI published a book outlining the learning from our collective experiences of this planning approach.

Why is TI involved in Community Planning? Planning-a rural development issue? Lack of Consensus Lack of Shared Vision Lack of Structures Lack of Processes 8 areas since 2002-funders incl. Local Authority, Department of Environment and LEADER

What is Community Planning? Seeking to develop an empowering, practical and participatory process to collect, analyse and compile information while developing the skills and structures to prepare an inclusive and multi-faceted plan for a defined geographical area developing partnership

Uses of Community Planning inform decision-making about allocation of scarce resources to obtain for statutory agencies, feedback from ‘customers’ communities have initiated their own profiles to demonstrate gaps in services etc. Partnership approach

TI Role in this process Facilitating Communication Capacity-building-at all levels Mediation between parties Independent Power-broker Establishing structures Researcher Replicator/Networker Policy influencer

Participatory Democracy at Work Banagher, Ferbane, Cloghan Community (representation, inclusion, co- operation, facilitation) County Council (Planning, Present and Future, PMG) County Councillors (Participation, Representation, Mediation) National Policy Context: Centralised Control v’s Local Participatory Democracy West Offaly Partnership. (Facilitation, Advocacy, Mediation) Tipperary Institute (Enablers, Researchers and Facilitators)

SERVE Project (Sustainable Energy in a Rural Village Environment). This is a major EU-funded project that is being co- ordinated by TI. key aspect of this is the development of a sustainable energy system for the new Eco-village in Cloughjordan and the existing village involves a wide range of stakeholders is aimed at engaging with issues around the improvement of the energy efficiency of dwellings collaborative and feedback-responsive in nature.

TI Education Centre responsible for developing new Courses and new approaches to Education within the Institute, with a particular focus on serving the needs of the community where we are located partnership with the Department of Education and the various Teachers’ organisations. A new initiative in development here is Place based learning, attempting to develop local and environmental awareness in second-level students and teachers and incorporate that into the curriculum.

Centre for Developing Human Potential, Creating participative learning experiences in a supportive and encouraging environment which facilitates personal growth and development.., Inspire programme for reskilling people in industry funded by state training agecy Coaching Training Support to community and voluntary organisations

National Centre for Rural Development NCRD – an Umbrella for our work Key project: providing technical and networking support to the Irish Leader Programme to 2008 and now to 2013 to the new Irish Rural development Programme has allowed us to operate at the heart of the Irish rural programme linking on the ground experience with policy work Capacity Building Influencing the Rural Agenda Created valuable contacts at a European level in Brussels and with new member states

Participation in Partnership Organisations The Institute is represented on a wide range of partnership- type organisations both nationally and locally As member/facilitator/trainer/researcher-depends the Institute seeks to incorporate and promote collaborative and consensus-based decision-making; the addressing of real issues; the minimisation of empty and notional discussion and promote authentic dialogue. Key Policy groups we are in contact with here include Local Authorities, Regional Authorities, Department of the Environment., Rural Transport and Childcare

Lessons Learned and Future Issues? Clear brief from the State Values-sustainability; social inclusion Partnership approach Communities as actors not subjects Rooted in Community Strategic approach via centres Small starts Staff specialisation Development of Centres Funding from the State and other sources More opportunities for Research More policy work Neutrality?

To be a resource to the people of Tipperary and its region To promote social inclusion To promote and be a beacon of sustainable development