Donegal community education providers receive funding boost

Community education projects throughout Donegal have received funding under the Mitigating against Educational Disadvantage Fund.

The projects will be funded from an overall fund of €5.8million which was launched in October 2020 by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD.

The fund is administered by SOLAS, the Further Education and Training Authority and the 16 local Education and Training Boards.

The aim of the fund is to support community education for adult learners, who have the highest level of need, with a strong focus on building the digital infrastructure of community education providers to increase the capacity to deliver online learning.

Donegal funding recipients include:

Dunfanaghy Community and Family Centre
Donegal Traveller Project
Clonmany Parish Resources Ltd;
Cairde Le Ceile CLG; and more.

The projects vary from programmes to help support online learning, connect communities, providing essential travel, and providing social support to vulnerable people.

Commenting on the announcement of the recipients, Andrew Brownlee, CEO of SOLAS, said: “We are delighted to have funded a wide range of Donegal community education services under the new Mitigating against Educational Disadvantage Fund. Covid-19 has had a huge impact on how education is delivered, with so much of our learning now taking place online.

“Those in society who are furthest removed from education through social disadvantage have been the most adversely impacted by the move online, either by a lack of digital literacy, or through a lack of IT hardware and software.

"Through the Fund, we are supporting community education providers to continue delivering their much-needed services, and to ensure that all sectors of society are remaining connected and supported to continue their learning journeys.”

Also commenting on the Fund was Cróna Gallagher, Director of Further Education and Training (FET) in Donegal Education and Training Board (DETB), which provides, supports and co-ordinates community education in Donegal, who said: “It is great to see so many diverse community education providers in Donegal being supported in funding to continue their vital work.

"Many of our community education partners are taking an innovative approach to ensure that no learner is left behind now that so much of our everyday lives are conducted online, whether learning, socialising, or working.

"We look forward to continuing to support the strong tradition of partnership and collaboration in community education throughout Donegal as we move through 2021 and hopefully to more positive times in the future.”

For further information on the Mitigating against Educational Disadvantage Fund, visit www.solas.ie