Visitors to LEDP cannot help but be amazed by the stunning artwork on the main corridor. The work of artist Angela Connolly and local children the project which allows the children to be creative in designing Horses that represent major issues and influences on their lives now runs the entire length of the main corridor and has added life and vibrancy to the building. Any businesses interested can sponsor a horse and help pay for the materials used.

Outline some of my own history and background and where I come from in all of this.

My time in Sean McDerrott St. and form there to now. How things were then and now

Using the Fitzgerald Report/ S.Shanker Meeting as our guide in these action and just picking key phrases he talks of….

Poor parenting skills….

Anti- social behaviour…

“One size fits all”

Need for an intensive focused intervention…..

Full service integration….

Target families at risk…

Variety of educational activities to suit different learning needs to be encompassed into the curriculum…..

He is also recommending that there be consultation around these interventions

Looking at these key phrases and reflecting on them, the question of education and its importance in all of these issuses arises.

But first I must stress three aspects of young people that set the agenda of this discussion

…. Lack of trust towards adults

…. Anxiety for the future

…. Difficulties in the process of socialization

If education is to be the main plank of our intervention, then we have to be guided by certain guidelines…

.. To restore authority by developing an educative relationship based on trust

…to allow the young person to project themselves in the future as a witness of hope

… To learn to live together among young people and adults

Out of these statements three core values come… namely Trust, Hope, Covenant,

And from what I have seen you are all operating out of these values

TRUST

Without affection there can be no trust. Without trust, there is no education

Education based on unshakable faith in the capacity of the young person to grow, regardless of his present difficulties.

Beilief that education empowers each one regardless the difficulties and helps /invites them to grow

We must continue to believe in the young people.

HOPE,

The only way to respect the right of a child to grow is to see in the young both the child that he/she is and the adult that he is called to become.

This reality “offers a sense of security” and makes them responsible

What the young at risk suffer most is a lack of security

To offer security is to experience success.

What are our institutions teaching our young people, are we empowering people by our actions?

What most young people need is not so much an adult that offers to “help” but one that is capable of saying “I need you” and by doing that you are giving a feeling of importance, of being wanted, of being responsible,

and a place in society.

For this sense of Hope to work we need to focus the spotlight on what they are capable of doing inviting them to grow

CONVENANT

This provides for a process of socialization.

The young person can not be seen as only a recipient, and doing for them but rather as a partner in the interaction.

In this process of socialization we need to bring all these elements together, the elements of School, Community, Parents and any other elements that help in this process.

For this process to be successful we need to open conversations at this moment in time

…to ascertain how we can take a lead in the education field in this area.

…To find out where the Gaps are in the system .

…The effectiveness of the Agencies in which we work

…. How best to lead in a managed fashion. What does this mean?

…. By mapping this data it can help us to think outside the box, look at new opportunities and move away from the traditional view of education that relies on “one size fits all” because it does not.

In this aspect Limerick has the potential to develop new thinking on this area of development in education and become the leading light.

The process has begun but it is not a one man show for any of us /or agency and we are all part of this jigsaw picture and have some valuable piece to add to it.

In this conversation with all the partners we have the ability to make a difference so I suppose the question for us in our community / agency what difference do we want to make and how do we go about it.

If we are to lead this element of HOPE we must return to and listen to what is happening on the ground. A lot of this is difficult to hear and can be frightening to listen too. The words TRUST , HOPE, COVENANT when put together can build a powerful system of education in this area. I believe this has far reaching implication for us all, but more especially for the care and education of the families and children we come in contact with everyday

Poem for Hope

As long as we have hope,

we have direction,

the energy to move,

and the map to move by.

We have a hundred alternatives,

a thousand paths and infinity of dreams.

Hopeful, we are halfway to where we want to go;

Hopeless, we are lost forever.

Hopeful people see alternatives and are willing to try different ways.

With hope you are halfway to where you want to go;

This is the challenge for all of us. These are the challenges for all of us.

YES WE CAN!!!

Click here to Download Text of Regeneration Presentation Given by Declan Blackett to Conversation (7MB, Powerpoint Presentation)

For access to advice, Social Finance and  Professional Assistance

Contact Karl Shanahan at (061) 469 067

We are here to help!!!!

Contact Jean Cleary (061) 469068

Click here for more information

UL AccessCampus Study Club in association with LEDP Brochure

Along with the corridor art programme we are also running a summer workshop for young people aged twelve upwards. Workshops run from September Places are limited to 12 students per group.

Those participating in the workshops will engage in designing a clay horse. two sessions are allocated to developing ideas plus colour studies, the next stage will involve learning to make a clay horse and the final stage transferring their design to a finished piece.

The plan is to make “One Hundred Clay Horses” and one Donkey to be exhibited in Limerick City

Those interested please contact angelaconnolly06@hotmail.com

LEDP which has over ten years experience in the area of supporting micro enterprise was born itself of major job losses in Limerick and from the economic blow of the loss of 500 jobs in Krups has overcome the odds and now employs over 700 people on the Southside of Limerick. The re-launched scheme comprises three main elements the first “The Social Finance Fund” aims to provide low cost loans for projects by individuals and communities who may have difficulty in obtaining capital from the usual lending institutions. This fund is the only Social Loan Organisation operating in Munster and has access to a €25 million fund The second element of the scheme involves local professional expertise in business from accounting through marketing, legal an insurance being made available free of charge on a person to person basis to help with business start-up. The third element on offer is the LEDP Enterprise Loan Fund which provides funds for eligible start-up businesses in Limerick City and County. This scheme is co-funded by First Step Micro Finance.

In relaunching the scheme LEDP are hoping that ordinary people with business ideas can take their own leap of faith in providing employment for themselves and others and in doing so can provide a strong local business sector with security and good business practices at their root.

Karl Shanahan is available for a confidential formal or informal chat about your business idea by calling (061) 469067.

ENDS

For Further information
Karl Shanahan
LEDP
Roxboro Road
Limerick
(061) 469067
enterpriseinfo@ledp.ie

Building on the historic links that exist between Norway, Limerick and Canada through the Hannah Parr Emigrant Ship Project, the Ambassador was received by both Mayor John Gilligan and Cathaoirleach John Gallahue. He reiterated the gratitude of the Norwegians to the people of Limerick for their care of the emigrants that sought refuge in Limerick for the period of the repair of their ship the Hannah Parr in 1868. He planted a tree in The Peoples Park in advance of a reception given in his honour by Limerick Civic Trust. During their meeting the Mayor extended a written invitation to a Norwegian Tall Ship to visit Limerick, a request which the Ambassador said he was most anxious to see fulfilled. His Excellency then visited the LEDP Complex on the Roxboro Road where he expressed his happiness at the economic turnaround that had happened there.

Following visits and meetings with broadband company E-Net, The Regeneration Agency and the AK Ilen Boatbuilding School all located at the facility he said he was heartened to see social innovation and high tech business located on the same site.

The visit also included itinerary stops at Westpark in Shannon where he viewed both Shannon Airport and the Estuary and received a briefing on the Atlantic Way Initiative and the Atlantic Fuel Services Complex currently under construction at Foynes Harbour. While in Foynes he visited the Roman Catholic Church where Stephen De Vere is interred and paid a courtesy call on the Foynes Flying Boat Museum where he launched Judith Hill’s book on the life of Conor O’ Brien entitled “In Search of Islands” The Ambassador in all of his addresses to the various groups he met over his busy two day itinerary pointed out his admiration for the excellence in the way in which projects of both a public and private nature were approached in the Midwest area. He expressed the wish that further links would be developed particularly in the areas of Tourism, Energy and Air Transport and he committed himself to helping further those aims.

Ends

For further Information/ Photo’s/ Media interviews

George Lee

LEDP
Roxboro Road
Limerick
(061) 469062
george@ledp.ie

The Norwegian ambassador paid a courtesy Visit to LEDP on Thursday 14/5/09.