1. Community Employment May 5th 2016
South Dublin Community Platform
Aidan Lloyd, Chairperson

2. Background context
CE makes a substantial contribution to the work of the C&V sector in south county Dublin. The range of services supported by CE includes:
Health, employment, childcare, addiction
Traveller, disability services
Community development, youth services
Sporting activities, education
So, there is a high dependency, especially in aftermath of heavy cuts to C&V sector under austerity
At present there are 26 community and voluntary sector organisations that sponsor CE. South Dublin County Council also sponsor a number of schemes
That makes a total of 865 CE places active in the county
740 in community and voluntary sector organisations, plus
125 more in community facilities supported by South Dublin County Council

3. Survey
In order to finely focus this meeting a survey monkey was sent to all the sponsor organisations – a quarter replied (please do so after today)
Key points made:
50% of those surveyed were engaged in the delivery of general community development services
All organisations surveyed said their CE budget constituted a significant proportion (more than 25%) of their budget
28.5% said it contributed between 25% and 50% of their total budget
28.5 % said it contributed between 50% and 75% of their total budget
43% said it constituted over 75% of their total budget

4. Contribution to staffing
50% of those surveyed said that CE was a substantial part of their staff resources
50% said that they would have to cut back their services considerably without CE
Interestingly, more than 60% of the organisations surveyed have CE staff based in other organisations - of the 8 organisations that responded they collectively supported another 30 organisations by providing CE participants
So, CE is crucial to the functioning and well being of the C&V sector