LONGFORD WOMENS LINK AWARDED GRANT TO DEVELOP TRAINING AND COMMUNITY FACILITY

 

Longford Women’s Link (LWL) is delighted to announce that our application for funding under the RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (RDP) for the construction of 154m2 Storey & A Half Training and Community Facility & Refurbishment of Existing Centre at Willow House, Ardnacassa Avenue has been successful.  We have been granted just under €200k for this building project and would like to thank Longford Community Resources Ltd. for their support and help in processing this application.

 

‘We are very excited about this new development’ stated Louise Lovett, Head of Operations at LWL. ‘The new building will help us to address the immediate need to ease the overcrowding of the facility, but also to provide for the delivery of Women centred education and training services to women in Longford, well into the future via the ‘Women’s Community Education’ model’, (WCE).

 

In responding to local community women’s issues over the past fifteen years, LWL has grown from a handful of paid staff in rented accommodation to becoming a substantial presence in the community, employing 44 full and part-time staff. Services provided include a community employment scheme, domestic violence support service, refugee/migrant support service, outreach and collective-action work, education & training programs, a wide –ranging counselling service and childcare facilities including a community crèche and mobile crèche facility. With the variety of services being offered and the continuing growth in demand for these services from the local community, LWL had reached a critical point in terms of the capacity and usage of its existing facility.

 

Tess Murphy CEO of LWL says that a key priority for LWL is to support women who may be lacking in confidence, who may have had negative experiences of education in the past, who may wish to up-skill or who want to get themselves back into the workforce. These kinds of opportunities begin to develop the capacity of individual women themselves, with knock-on positive impacts for their children, families and the broader local community.

 

This is achieved predominantly through the provision of appropriate education and training courses, delivered to suit the caring roles of women and with supports like childcare and transport provided. On the job training and work experience is provided through our Community Employment Scheme. Childcare is provided through our nursery, Catkins and our mobile childcare service “Catkins on the Move”

 

 

ENDS