South Tipperary Development Company

Working with relevant stakeholders, South Tipperary Development CLG (STDC) facilitates and resources community-led local development to address social, economic, and environmental challenges for the benefit of all in South Tipperary. It delivers programmes and initiatives on behalf of various Government Departments and Agencies such as Tusla, HSE, Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

STDC's programmes and services are as follows:

Rural Development (or LEADER) Programme

Under the current programme, 2014 – 2020, funding is available to support projects under the 3 themes of:

• Economic Development, Enterprise Development & Job Creation with a specific focus on Rural Tourism, Rural Towns and Rural Broadband;
• Social Inclusion with a specific focus on Basic services for Hard to Reach communities and on Rural Youth;
• The Rural Environment.

Under this programme, examples of actions that can be funded include: 

• training programmes for young people that cannot be funded through mainstream funding streams.
• development of playground facilities by community groups
• development of outdoor recreation facilities

Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP)

The 3 goals of this programme are:

1. To provide supports to socially disadvantaged communities and marginalized groups to address issues of social exclusion and inequality
2. To provide supports to individuals and marginalized target groups to participate in lifelong learning, educational & training opportunities
3. To engage with marginalized individual and target groups and residents from disadvantaged communities in order to support them to take up employment opportunities.

Target groups for support under SICAP are:

• Children and Families in areas designated as socially and economically disadvantaged
• Lone Parents
• People with Disabilities
• ‘New communities’ (the migrant communities)
• The unemployed
• Travellers
• Adults under 65 years living in disadvantaged communities
• Young people, aged 15 – 24 years, not in employment, education or training

Under SICAP, STDC provides such services as:

• COMPASS Employment Support, offering one-to-one support to people who are unemployed for over a year to explore and prepare for back-to-work, education and training options
• Support to residents in estates in RAPID town areas in Clonmel and Carrick-on-Siúir to develop local initiatives and facilities.

The Tús programme

The Tús programme is delivered by STDC on behalf of the Department of Social Protection (DSP). It provides short term working opportunities in a community setting for unemployed people, tailored to their specific needs and skills. Participants, as well as learning new skills, support and add value through their work to a broad range of services delivered by community and voluntary bodies. Typically, the Tús employee works 19.5 hours per week.  200 Tús placements are allocated to the South of the county.

Rural Social Scheme

Rural Social Scheme provides income support to low income farm families who are in receipt of long term social welfare payments, and they in return undertake work of benefit to their local community for a scheduled number of hours per week, typically 19.5 hours. STDC administers and runs this scheme on behalf of the DSP.

National Countryside Recreation Strategy

National Countryside Recreation Strategy seeks to promote and encourage the development, delivery and improvement of recreation projects, infrastructure and activities including land, water and air based activities. It also seeks to develop, improve and promote other outdoor recreation activities including mountain access.

Other services the STDC has undertaken include:

• Management of Clonmel (Traveller) Primary Health Care Project
• Organization and management of Incredible Years training programme since 2013.
• Implementation of Safefood programme: Through the Safefood programme, STDC supports families in developing healthy eating plans.

Target Groups: For SICAP, see list of eligible groups above. For Tús, the criteria is at least 12 months unemployed and receipt of Jobseekers Allowance. For Rural Social Scheme, qualifications are to be a low-income farmer and to be in receipt of a Social Welfare payment

How to access: For Tús, self-referral to local Intreo or Social Welfare branch office. For all other services, contact STDC office.

Geographic remit: South of the county, in general, except in the case of the National Countryside Recreation Strategy where STDC’s remit is the whole county.