Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP)

The new local and Community Development Programme came into effect on the 1^st January 2010. The aim of the new programme is to tackle poverty and social exclusion through partnership and constructive engagement between Government and its agencies and people in disadvantaged communities.  This will be underpinned by four high level goals:

Goal 1 : To promote awareness, knowledge and uptake of a wide range of statutory,voluntary and community services.

Goal 2: To increase access to formal and informal educational, recreational and cultural development activities and resources.

Goal 3: To increase peoples’ work readiness and employment prospects.

Goal 4 : To promote engagement with policy, practice and decision making processes on matters affecting local communities.

The following disadvantaged individuals and communities are specifically named amongst the target groups of the LCDP:

• The long-term unemployed
• Disadvantaged women
• Disadvantaged young people
• Asylum seekers and refugees
• Travellers
• Substance misusers
• Older people
• Lone parents
• Disabled people
• The underemployed
• Homeless people
• Young people at risk
• Ex-prisoners and ex-offenders
• Low-income farm households
• Disadvantaged communities living in isolated rural areas or deprived urban areas.

Principles

The following principles are central to the way in which the programme is rolled out:

• Targeting - focusing on the greatest disadvantage
• Flexibility at local level - allowing local solutions to local needs
• Community development - empowering socially excluded groups
• A strategic, catalytic role - using limited resources to lever wider change
• Partnership - collaborative approaches

Linkages and complementarity

Throughout all actions there is a commitment to the development of linkages and networks with other agencies and organisations to ensure that the work of theprogramme is dynamic and effective. The programme aims to complement and add value to the services and supports of other mainstream organisations.