Three Drogheda organisations are among the projects in Louth and Meath to receive support from Bank of Ireland’s Begin Together programme.
The Begin Together Community Fund, in partnership with The Community Foundation for Ireland, provides financial support to grassroots groups, social enterprises and charities. The Begin Together Arts Fund, in partnership with Business to Arts, supports artists creating inspiring artworks to uplift their local communities.
Community Fund grantees will receive up to €20,000 for projects spanning financial literacy and wellbeing, mental health, disability, inclusion and diversity, and social isolation. Arts Fund grantees will receive up to €10,000 to support new works in music, theatre, dance, traditional arts, the visual arts, film and craft. In total, €825,000 is being allocated to groups across the island of Ireland.
The three Drogheda projects being supported by Begin Together are:
- Autism Support Louth & Meathruns a project called ‘Fitness Friends’ which enables participants with autism to take part in a variety of different activities, each week, with the main goals of building fitness as well as developing social skills and self-confidence.
- SOSAD Irelandworks to raise awareness and help prevent suicide in Ireland through six offices in Cavan, Louth, Meath, and Monaghan, and through their helpline. This funding will allow the group to expand the existing online crisis messaging service to provide support for non-English speakers including Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian and Polish people.
- Outcomers Droghedais an independent, support organisation providing a confidential drop-in space, information, integration and advocacy for LGBTQ+ adults in the Drogheda area.
Other organisations in Louth and Meath to receive Begin Together funding are:
- Eimear Quinn, Breath Upon the Flame, MeathThis project is a recording of an album of Irish song and music reimagined for voice, brass and strings, featuring ‘The Voice’ Eimear Quinn and some of Ireland’s finest instrumentalists.
- Declan Gorman, Sharon McArdle, Luca Truffarelli and Cara Holmes, Prison Notebooks, Louth. ‘Prison Notebooks’ is a new, solo performance play based primarily on the journals and writings by Dorothy Macardle over the course of her incarceration during the Irish Civil War.
- Involve Youth Project Meathoperates a youth service in the towns of Navan and Trim to promote the participation of the traveller community in Irish society.
Francesca McDonagh, Group Chief Executive of Bank of Ireland, said:
“We’re immensely proud to support a wide range of community groups, charities, and social enterprises working in every part of Ireland. What they do unites, supports and protects local communities and some of the most vulnerable in our society. While the road ahead looks much more positive, communities across Ireland still face many challenges. It’s our hope that this support will help them face those challenges, and overcome them.”
“The arts enrich our lives, but this sector has been one of the most seriously impacted during the pandemic. The Begin Together Arts Fund has helped sustain the development of new work and artistic practice during the pandemic and the new projects announced today will continue to enrich our lives and communities into the future.”
More information about all the projects supported by Begin Together is available here: http://www.bankofireland.com/begintogether
