Supporting Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project
From family bus trips to the seaside at Youghal to the provision of childcare services and pathways to education, the Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project (Mayfield CDP) has been offering a helping hand to a Cork community in need since 1990.
Mayfield Integrated Community Development Project has helped children to play and adults to learn. The Project has also supported older people to live safely and independently through the administration of the Senior Alert Scheme (SAS). This scheme, overseen by Pobal, received a €9,000 contribution from the National Lottery good causes pot in 2015.
On these very streets, Roy Keane learned his footballing craft and today youngsters in Mayfield are also finding their way in a world filled with just as many challenges as opportunities.
The mission statement of the Mayfield CDP reads: ‘We aim to respond to local needs by the provision of support, training and developmental opportunities to individuals and groups in the community. We work with people in a non-discriminatory way and encourage everyone to reach their full potential in a safe, open, friendly and accessible environment,’ and over the last three decades the Project has remained through to its word.
Based in Mayfield Community Resource Centre in the Cork City suburb, it runs a Community Adult Learning Project that offers a selection of courses in the community in a relaxed and friendly setting. And in 2017 it was included in the UNESCO-recognised Learning Neighbourhoods programme.
The Adult Learning Project has literally changed lives.
An innovative project, which acts as a first contact and/or stepping stone for adults who have been excluded for one reason or another from the educational system, it works with participants to develop self-confidence and initiate the process of education or further training opportunities.
The project also provides ‘Mayfield Matters’ - a local community newsletter produced in Mayfield CDP Community Resource Centre by volunteers with the support of the CDP staff. Two thousand copies of each issue are produced and distributed free of charge through local churches and businesses every two months.
Rainbow Community Crèche, a CDP initiative, provides part-time low-cost childcare for children from six months to five years prior to preschool.
Each stage of life is valued from Early Years to Older Years. The Pobal Senior Alert Scheme funded by the National Lottery is vital in enabling Mayfield CDP to support older people to live in their own homes in the community.
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on National Lottery games go back to Good Causes. Last year alone over €225 million was raised by the National Lottery and its players for Good Causes all over Ireland, equating to about €616,000 per day.