Rural Action and Irish Rural Link have celebrated the success of their 1-year Synergy Rural Collaboration Project. The 2 organisations recently came together to review the project activities and discuss opportunities for future cross border learning and development.
The Synergy project was a joint initiative, funded under the initial round of the Irish Government’s Shared Island Civic Society Fund. It sought to bring the two organisations together to consider current issues facing rural communities and more importantly to collaborate and devise possible solutions to address the issues identified.
The project involved a range of activities from consultative approaches, such as meetings, workshops, focus groups and regional rural surveys through to study visits, sharing practice and thematic working groups.
This final event was hosted by Rural Action and was a reciprocal event from that hosted by Irish Rural Link at the start of the year. The 1-day session involved the review of the Synergy project and central to discussions were potential areas for future collaboration, namely Climate and Environment; Community Development/Rural Regeneration, Social Enterprise and Voluntary Sector; Heritage and Conservation; and Cross Border Collaboration.
The event also included input from Cushendall Innovation Centre and concluded with a site visit and tour of the Peace IV funded Pomeroy Forest Building and Trail in Co. Tyrone.
Speaking about the project, Teresa Canavan, Chief Executive of Rural Action, said “This year long project has given us an opportunity to work much more closely with Irish Rural Link, our counterparts in Ireland. We have been able to sustain contact and enhance relationships, have completed indepth research, learned from each other and identified 2 potential areas for further collaboration with work ongoing to turn these into reality. We are very grateful to the Shared Island Civic Society Fund for supporting this project.”
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Notes to Editor
1. The Shared Island Civic Society Fund was launched in January 2023 to promote practical North South cooperation and engagement across a range of sectors and themes, consistent with the objectives and commitments of the Good Friday Agreement.
2. The Fund aims to encourage and support civic society and community organisations to further strengthen existing partnerships and/or to develop new cross-border links, to build connectivity, and to work together to ensure an inclusive and diverse island.
3. Applications are required to have a clear North South dimension, involving cross-border partners collaborating on a project to strengthen North South civic, economic, cultural, and/or political links.
4. Rural Action was formed in 2019 as a not-for-profit social purpose company and became a registered charity in March 2022. It was established to meet an identified need for a regional delivery organisation with a focus on supporting grassroots communities. It seeks to make a positive contribution to the everyday lives of rural communities.
5. Irish Rural link was established in 1991 to represent the interests of locally based rural groups in disadvantaged and marginalised rural areas at local, National and EU Level.
6. Rural Action is the lead organisation for the Synergy: Rural Collaboration Project, which was a 12-month project funded by the Irish Government’s Shared Island Civic Society Fund. It is one of 20 projects funded in the initial round of the Fund.