| About
Rapid |
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 Rapid
National |
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| Rapid
in Kilkenny |
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| Community
Participation |
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| Rapid Kilkenny Kilkenny has been selected as one of 19 towns nationally as part of the RAPID programme Areas selected under the RAPID programme for Kilkenny include: Hebron Park, Loughboy, Bishop Birch Place, Ossory Park, De La Salle Place, Newpark Close, O'Loughlin Court, Millenium Court, St. Marys Avenue, New Park Lower, New Orchard, Pococke Valley, The Butts, St. Canice's, McCauley Place, and St. Catherines. Area Implementation Team ? An Area Implementation Team for the town has been established. It has brought together local State Agency personnel the Local Authority, Health Board, VEC, Dept of Social, Community and Family Affairs, FÁS, the local Partnership Company, the Garda Siochana, the Kilkenny Borough Council and residents from the local community. The team will have the support of the County Development Board, the Kilkenny County Council ,Ronan Ryan the RAPID co-ordinator and liaison staff from Area Development Management Ltd.
The Area Implementation Team have drawn up an interim plan in conjunction
with the local authorities RAPID co-ordinator The Strategic Plan Now that the interim plan has been submitted , work will now concentrate on the development of the longterm Strategic plan. The Strategic Plan will continue to prioritise projects in the identified RAPID areas and document an indepth area profile. The next round of project applications must be in with the RAPID plan by June 2003. What does this involve ?1. Community Consultation Phase It is now time for us to start thinking about the Long Term Strategic
Plan and it is important that everone has an opportunity to feed
into the process
Their are still identified RAPID areas with no community representatives.
It is essential that these areas have an established committee in
order to successfully participate in the programme, for further
details please contact Ronan.
Are
you interested in representing your community?
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A number of new
community resident / development associations have been developed.
We aim to have community representatives for all of the areas
identified under RAPID by June 2003. Some of the new resident
associations include, Mc Cauley Place, Ossory park, Millennium
Court, and O'Loughlin Court. 
The types of information
that can be gathered can include environmental trends,population
trends, local history, external and internal influences on the
community, aspirations and priorities for the future. The process
is facilitated by Newground ,a highly experienced training organisation.
The workshop which is designed to be informal and enjoyable
lasts for around 2 hours.
A number of Projects
have been approved and stamped by the Kilkenny Area Implementation
Team / SIM group and forwarded to the relevant government departments.
The first round of projects submitted for the October 02 deadline
were mainly comprised of project applications developed by established
community groups prior to the Launch of RAPID in Kilkenny. Samples
of projects submitted include Child Care programmes, Education programmes,
Youth related projects to name but a few. 
The AIT are presently
in the process of developing a Strategic Plan to be submitted in
June 2003. The Strategic Plan will focus on generic needs from the
identified RAPID areas. Projects will be prioritised and forwarded
with the RAPID stamp to relevant Departments on an on going basis.
Communities will be encouraged to identify relevant projects and
will play a key role in how projects will be prioritised.