Funding announced for the Sligo Street Ambassador Programme
THE Minister for Justice this week announced more than €120,000 in funding for s Stret Ambassador programme in Sligo.
Minister Helen McEntee announced last weekend the allocation of grants totalling €2 million to successful applicants to the Community Safety Innovation Fund.from around the country.
It is the first round of grants given out since Minister McEntee and Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath established the Community Safety Innovation Fund – which reinvests the proceeds of crime seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau in local projects.
22 community projects across the country - including one in Sligo - are set to benefit from grants ranging from €5,000 to €150,000, which will support the delivery of innovative projects to improve community safety in their local areas.
Sligo-Leitrim Minister Frank Feighan welcomed the allocation to Sligo Business Improvement Programme of €121,789.
“The project seeks to create and train a network of volunteers creating a street ambassador programme to assist with people movement, safety, and wellbeing in the business improvement District of Sligo Town. The ambassador programme will have a manager who will recruit and train volunteer street ambassadors to work with stakeholders as friendly faces and helping hands visible in the town centre.
“I want to congratulate Sligo Business Improvement District for their well-researched application, the project will cost almost €134,000. The project will be assessed after two years to monitor the impact of the approach to on street safety in high traffic urban economic areas like Sligo town.”
The Community Safety Innovation Fund was established in April 2021 and €2 million was allocated to it under Budget 2022 - and this will increase to €3 million next year under Budget 2023.
Minister McEntee said: “This fund reflects the successes of An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau in identifying and seizing the ill-gotten gains of criminals. Equally, people across Ireland are working tirelessly in their communities to prevent crime from taking hold and make their local areas safer.
“Working together, we will build stronger, safer communities. By putting this money back into the community, we can show that there is a direct link between the activities of law enforcement and improving community safety.
“Based on the high quality of proposals received, I believe the successful projects have the potential to have a real impact on their respective communities.
“I also want to encourage those who applied this year but did not receive funding to apply next year – we are increasing the size of the fund by 50 per cent under Budget 2023.
The programme will focus on high traffic urban economic areas such as O’Connell Street.
My Department will provide guidance on how to achieve a successful application.”
The funding call for the Community Safety Innovation Fund invited applications from community safety initiatives as well as groups co-funded with local authorities, NGOs and community organisations working on issues relevant to community safety and youth justice.
The fund opened for applications in April 2022 and a total of 124 were received by the deadline of June 8. Minister McEntee added: “Community Safety is about people being safe and, just as importantly, feeling safe within their communities. It’s vital that we empower our communities to proactively address concerns and build stronger and safer communities.
“One of the objectives of this fund was to encourage the development of innovative ways to improve community safety from those people who best understand local community safety needs. Each project has detailed how best the community wants to prevent crime and their proposals reflect community priorities and local safety issues.”