Training & Support
Upcoming Training
We plan to provide training during the Autumn of 2021 on the following topics:
- Marketing your Community Group
- Funding/Fundraising for Community Groups
- Accounting for Community Groups.
If there are any further areas of training that your group would be interested in attending, please get in touch with us.
Previous Training Events - Resources
Finding Your Way Around Local Goverment
To support community groups and individuals to understand the local government landscape Co Wicklow PPN organised three workshops that looked at the structures of local government, its committees, the policy areas it covers, the work it undertakes, the roles of its various stakeholders, the budgetary process and how to make effective submissions.
Social Justice Ireland provided an overview for each session and a Representative of Wicklow County Council spoke about the specifics within Co. Wicklow local government.
During the third session in this series of training Social Justice Ireland spoke about Participatory Budgeting. Participatory Budgeting has been defined as a process which ‘engages people in taking decisions on the spending priorities for a defined public budget in their local area. This means engaging residents and community groups to discuss spending priorities, make spending proposals, and vote on them, as well as giving local people a role in the scrutiny and monitoring of the process’ (Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), 2008, p. 8).
To find out more about Participatory Budgeting click HERE to access the IPA Report on Participatory Budgeting.
Group Good Governance
This training aimed to assist groups to develop their operational systems and structures so they can achieve their organisation’s purposes and demonstrate good governance practices.
The training was provided over four online sessions which covered the following:
Session 1: Overview of the context in which not-for-profit groups now operate and what is expected of them in terms of accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness. The session also considered the Charities Regulator’s Code Principles 1 & 2
Session 2: Considered the Charities Regulator’s Code Principles 3 & 4
Session 3: Considered the Charities Regulator’s Code Principles 5 & 6
Session 4: Reviewed the whole process and recapped on the most challenging aspects of developing the documentation necessary to demonstrate that any organisation has the necessary approach to good governance.
Making the Sustainable Development Goals more visible in Wicklow
This workshop was a collaboration between: Development Perspective (Saolta), Co Wicklow PPN and Wicklow County Council.
The workshop covered the following:
- Introduction to the SDGs
- Identifying how we highlight the SDGs in our work in Co. Wicklow and label it with the relevant goal.
- Hear about the new Wicklow mapping of SDGs
- Access Free community development resources
Access and input your groups actions to the SDG Mapping Tool for Co. Wicklow
What are the SDGs and what can I do to help achieve them?
New Options for Funding Your Community Group
This course was delivered for Co. Wicklow PPN by Liam Scollan of the Carmichael Centre over two sessions – Tuesday 22nd & 29th September 2020. This course aimed to support all community groups challenged with loss of any type of income from traditional sources as a result of Covid-19.
Super Charge Your Self Care Programme
During 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and bearing in mind the shared Vision for Community Wellbeing developed with communities throughout the County, which highlighted the wish that people be connected and enjoy a good level of social and community support Co. Wicklow PPN decided to develop a resource to help support the wellbeing of individuals and communities. We teamed up Avril Bailey to develop this Super Charge Your Selfcare Programme.
This programme was initially delivered as online training. It has now being developed into a series of six short videos.
View the Six Videos on YouTube
For more information and resources check out:
Ready & Able Post COVID-19
This course was delivered for Co. Wicklow PPN by Liam Scollan of the Carmichael Centre on Tuesday 21st July. The course aimed to support Community Groups to return to activities.
Training Fair - 2019
In 2018 Co Wicklow PPN held its first training fair. It was so beneficial to community groups and volunteers that they asked if Co Wicklow PPN would make it an annual event. Building on the success of the 2018, the 2019
Training Fair took place on Saturday 21 September in The Brockagh Centre, Laragh. Workshops provided included: Funding your group; Getting the most out of Social Media; Charitable Status & the Governance Code; Running effective meetings; Mental health & wellbeing in the community; GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation); Good governance – where to start; Health & Safety for your group; and Attracting Volunteers. The spotlight on a PPN member group will showcase Laragh/Glendalough Tidy Towns and their work as a tidy towns committee, setting up a sustainable energy community and establishing a community garden. A visit to the community garden will be included. There will be lots of information stands from organisations that support community groups and lunch will be provided with contributions from local community cafés.
Training Fair 2019 - Presentations
Funding Your Group - Carmichael
GDPR - Cramdentech, Caroline Egan
Training Fair - 2018
At the request of member groups,County Wicklow PPN organised a Free Training Fair to support community & voluntary groups to do their work. The event was held on Saturday 8th September in The Brockagh Centre, Laragh. Workshops ran throughout the day on topics including: Charities Regulation, How To Manage Your Volunteers, Social & Digital Media, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), Safeguarding Children in Sport, Planning for Success, Governance Code, Garda Vetting and more.
Along with the workshops there were information stands from organisations that support and fund community groups including. Our wonderful local community cafés were on hand to share their experiences of setting up these great initiatives while also providing refreshments.