Supporting community businesses to employ disadvantaged groups

• Author: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission)
• Pages: 14-15

Problem addressed

Irish employment activation programmes and welfare

payment schemes focus on assisting individuals for a def‌ined

period of time to gain work experience and secure paid jobs.

However, people with disabilities, people with convictions

who are in contact with the probation service, homeless

people, those with a history of substance abuse, travellers

and long-term unemployed people oen struggle to compete

with other jobseekers in the labour market. New approaches

to supporting the employment of disadvantaged individuals

are needed, including an emphasis on job creation.

Innovative solution

The Community Services Programme (CSP) was created

in 2006 with support from the Irish Government, to create

sustainable employment opportunities for marginalised

individuals. The CSP provides organisations with funding

and capacity-building to create sustainable jobs, 70% of

which must be for people from disadvantaged groups.

Three types of organisations are eligible for funding: those

delivering community services that target disadvantaged

groups; community enterprises that employ people outside

the labour force; and community halls and facilities such as

care homes.

The CSP provides organisations with a f‌ixed annual co-

funding contribution towards the cost of employing a

manager and/or a specif‌ied number of full-time positions.

The CSP also provides organisations with a range of business

support to build and develop their capacity for sustainability

issues, business planning and ef‌fectively supporting staf‌f

from vulnerable groups.

The CSP is managed by Pobal, a governmental entity which

collects data on the demographic, recent employment

history and category of work of CSP benef‌iciaries. This

information enables further research into the challenges

vulnerable groups face when re-entering the labour market,

to inform the design of better capacity-building measures for

CSP-funded organisations.

Supporting community businesses to

employ disadvantaged groups

Community Services Programme

Ireland

SOCIAL INNOVATION: INSPIRATIONAL PRACTICES

SUPPORTING PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES

14

© Alan Curtis, 2019

Old Presbyterian church that is used for community

facilities in the Sliabh Ardagh area