RURAL communities in Donegal are worst served by community and voluntary groups, a recently completed Council audit has shown.

While those living in urban areas would have a ratio of community/voluntary groups to people of 1:158 the ratio of groups to people in rural areas drops dramatically to 1:1,425.

These are some of the enlightening findings from the Donegal Community Audit funded unde the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation.

It aimed at 'Building Better Communities' through locally based re-generation development strategies.

The research for the audit and mapping was carried out by Ms Rosita Mc Fadden and Ms Loretta Mc Nicholas of the Research and Policy Unit, Community Culture and Enterprise, Donegal County Council. The conclusions were presented by Mr Michael O'hEanaigh, Director of Services, Community Culture and Enterprise.

Mr O'Heanaigh said that making the county's 458 community groups more accessible to people is an absolute necessity in building better communities.

The audit achieved this by examining among other things, the physical accessibility of community infrastructure to different concentrations of the population, by Electoral Area, Electoral Division and by Urban and Rural Areas.

The audit looked at how well people's needs were met by existing group locations. It examined the programmes and activities that are conducted by community and voluntary groups to meet the needs of targeted groups.

Among the issues researched were how accessible are community facilities to community and voluntary groups in terms of physical distance.

It also looked at the time allocated to community and voluntary groups in the programming of activities.

An important issue was how accessible were community facilities to People with Disabilities, to low income groups and other key vulnerable sectors.

Rural and Urban Needs

The audit showed that mixed clusters of community and voluntary groups and facilities were found mainly in the towns of medium and larger populations.

While clusters comprising of mainly community and voluntary groups are located in small urban settlements and rural areas.

Despite the lack of facilities in small urban and rural areas, the level of activity is testimony to the nature of those communities to meet in alternative types of facilities, such as schools and public houses.

When the disparity between those in rural areas and urban areas became evident (1:1,425) it showed that with 58 per cent of the entire population of the county in rural areas, are at a particular disadvantage.

Even with the favourable ratios recorded for urban areas (1:158), the question remained as to whether this was sufficient.

Information required

In order to enhance accessibility, widespread sharing of information is needed. The Community Audit produced the 'Directory of Community and Voluntary Groups by Geographical Remit', which outlines the groups in each area.

This information can be used by members of the general public to identify where the nearest community and voluntary group is located. Because the results are shown in map form, the information is easily accessed by the public at a glance.

The project team have recommended that policy makers and community development workers utilise both sources of information to plan for community infrastructural provision in a more coherent fashion. This aims to ensure the deficits identified, especially in rural areas, be addressed now and in the future.

In addition the Community Audit has identified community and voluntary groups who are willing to or could be encouraged to share a wide range of resources. These could be used again to address the imbalance of infrastructure in rural areas.

Coherent Planning for all

The analysis of the research indicated that the sectors with the greatest concentrations of key vulnerable groups, were not always those which were best served by community and voluntary groups. It showed that the older population and people with disabilities were the most poorly served.

It has become evident that other factors are determining where this infrastructure is emerging.

The two sectors outlined above, deserve positive discrimination towards their accessibility needs and the Audit 'Directory of Community and Voluntary Groups by Sectoral Remit', can be used to identify where these groups are located.

The results also reveal that the range and diversity of programmes and projects offered by community and voluntary groups appear to be responding to the changing composition of the population i. e. ethnic minorities and lone parents. The summary of the audit describes these changes as encouraging.

"However, on-going strategic needs assessment are necessary to ensure policy makers and stakeholders in the Community and Voluntary Sector are well informed of changing needs and plan in a coherent manner as to how provision will meet or cater for these in the future," Mr O'Heanaigh said.

Defining groups

Prior to the establishment of the Donegal Community Audit, there was a degree of uncertainty at to what constituted a legitimate community and voluntary group.

The audit was encouraging in that it noted that the majority of groups captured through the Community Audit would in fact qualify as legitimate community and voluntary groups. They have a constitution, aim and objectives and memorandum and articles of association.

"This is useful in that other agencies can now use this database to ensure that funds are being allocated to bone fide community and voluntary groups and this would ensure optimal fund allocation," he added.

Importance of Funding

The audit summary states that it cannot be overstated how important funding is to the long-term sustainability of the community and voluntary sector.

The success of a groups' project is in part dependent on the development of a clear project plan outlining key deliverables, project milestones, capital and resource allocations and time scales.

Although 66 per cent of groups had made plans on how they would meet their future funding needs, it became evident that the majority of these may not even be linked into a long-term strategic development plan.

"There is a clear need for funding bodies to take account of a strategic plan as one of the criterion for the allocation of funds."

Improving volunteerism

Mr O'hEanaigh added that agencies now had access to a range of practical solutions put forward by the communities themselves on how volunteerism can be improved.

"These very valid ways of promoting volunteerism have been grouped according to the following headings: training and support, offering funding payments and incentives, awareness and promotion, through community development and offering better facilities.

"The audit identified that 51 per cent of all respondents had short-term training needs, 32 per cent had medium-term training needs and 17 per cent had long-term training needs. Now education and training providers have clear direction of the type of course to offer each sector to best meet their needs now and in the future."

Joining forces

The vision of the Donegal County Community Forum is to "support and develop a vibrant community and voluntary sector through the Area Fora, actively promoting social inclusion and to represent the sector in decision-making structures in the County." A necessary pre-requisite to achieving such representation, is that community and voluntary groups are aware of the existence and are willing to join their closest area forum.

The results from the audit, suggested that there is a lack of awareness of the existence of these structures in the county, with around 27 per cent of groups being unaware of their existence. Furthermore, 24 per cent of all groups indicated that they would not like to join their nearest forum, which may be due to the low levels of awareness of these structures.

The results would indicate that there is a need to promote the role, function and benefits of being a member of these structures on a countywide basis. This would ultimately ensure that these structures were as representative of, and accessible to, all community and voluntary groups on the ground.

"Now the opportunity exists for the County Community Forum, Donegal County Council and other community stakeholders, to circulate beneficial information to all community and voluntary groups captured."

Use of Facilities

The issue of where community and voluntary groups meet was examined. The audit revealed that facilities were under utilised in both the "peak" and "off-peak" seasons. This could be due to accessibility problems in terms of location and transport, opening hours, insurance or that the facility is being used by majority type sports.

There is a need to address the programming of facilities to improve usage, especially among the targeted groups.

The evidence suggested that more could be done from a social inclusion perspective to make the facilities audited more accessible to all sectors including: (a) the display of an equal usage policy; (b) monitoring the diversity of clients using the facility; (c) measures that will assist people with sensory and intellectual disabilities utilising the centre, (d) operating a dual pricing system for low income groups; (e) supporting community and voluntary groups in the formulation of facility sub committees; and by (f) allocating adequate programme times for community and voluntary groups.

Insurance Costs

Further threats to the long-term accessibility of community facilities was the rising cost of insurance and the refusal of some insurance underwriters to provide cover.

This could reduce the number of community facilities available in the future.

"Insurance group schemes and models of good practice need to be explored. Again the future development or expansion of most facilities would fall under the remit of a 'facilities sub committee' and it is quite alarming to note that the vast majority of facilities audited did not have one.

"Finally, the results of the audit indicated that community and voluntary groups were more likely to occur in small urban settlements and evidence would tend to suggest that this is not the case with community facilities.

"The future challenge is for policy makers and community development workers to now take the findings and the recommendations of the Donegal Community Audit and plan in a more coherent manner, for the future of this sector in the county," Mr O'hEanaigh said.