Sometimes a crisis can act as a spur to creativity. In the east Clare town of Scariff, the economic shock of 2008 saw businesses close their doors, people lose their jobs and hope begin to drain from the community.
Their story was replicated in towns and villages across the country.
But in Scariff - as elsewhere - the crisis prompted a renewed focus on local talents and initiative, with the East Clare Community Cooperative at the heart of the process.
For over 28 years, the group has been facilitating community-led growth and renewal in the region and the importance of their work was acknowledged by President Higgins, who attended the organisation’s 25th anniversary celebrations.
The Cooperative provides a range of support services and measures in the community, operates a coffee shop and community garden and facilitates the provision of horticultural and culinary based training. It also offers a family counselling service and hosts a wide diversity of sports and cultural activities in its premises.
The group devised a three year recovery plan focused on utilising natural resources, to support local enterprise and tourism initiatives. This saw the establishment of community enterprise and training kitchens to assist with skills development in the form of training courses and local food business start-ups.
The social dividend from this project - which was supported by Clann Credo - was clear and of enormous potential value to the communities of east Clare.
Location: Scariff, Co. Clare
Website:
http://www.eastclarecommunitycoop.com/
""Clann Credo provided invaluable financial assistance to us through bridging finance (as required by the LEADER programme) and affordable term loans, without which our project could not have been started or completed. They were supportive to us at a critical time as we got the project off the ground when we had no other financial options open to us"."