Cloney Rural Development Association

Public benefits

Cloney Rural Development Association (here on called CRDA) will provide and operate a community centre for the benefit of the local community. The members of our community will have access to a wide range of activities which would not otherwise be available. Primary aged children will be able to access a youth club between September and April.

In this they will take part in sporting and artistic activities to help with their fitness and creativity as well as meet up with their peers. We will also organise a cross community feis in May of each year. In this the children are invited to take part and compete in a range of events. The competitions will involve art, traditional and classical music, singing, recitation, speech and drama, poetry and news reporting increasing their appreciation of these areas and enabling them to interact with children of all backgrounds. The events are all based around a theme chosen each year. Children of all ages also benefit from music and dance sessions improving their fitness and awareness of music. Older people in our rural community benefit from access to a ‘Young at Heart’ group. They can take part in a number of activities depending on their interests. There is a weekly walking group who offer local and distant walks linked to the ‘Walking for Health’ programme. The walkers also enjoy monthly coffee sessions after the walk for social interaction and celebration of notable events in their lives eg birthdays, new grandchildren and so on. A Christmas Dinner is held n December each year for this age group. These events help reduce social isolation among older people and help keep them active. This group can also avail of our monthly Pharmacy Project where they choose the topics to be covered to assist with health awareness. In September of each year we organise a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care which raises £1000+ As part of CRDA’s membership of Bann Maine West cluster we can also offer this group access to monthly Lunch and Learn sessions. Our centre is regularly used to host events for the whole cluster groups eg training in health awareness issues. On a more general level the centre is used to host activities for all age groups. These include fitness classes, winter training for local sports club members, children’s parties, religious group meetings, funeral teas, ceilis. The centre is also used as the polling station for the local area. The success of the centre can be demonstrated by the numbers attending events and by the outside groups who are keen to organise new events. We are situated in a sparse rural community but still attract 20 or more to events most of whom many are regular attendees. One religious group in particular used the centre for a weekly service this spring and following its success have already reserved the premises again for the autumn period. There is no harm resulting from any of the purposes we use. The beneficiaries of CRDA are the members of the local community who attend the wide range of activities we offer. There is no private benefit resulting from any of the purposes we offer.

What your organisation does

Operating Youth Club Operation of Young at Heart Group Walking Group Programmes to help Isolated members of our community eg widows, widowers, one and two member households. All programs are open to the whole community and flyers are placed in local businesses to advertise them.