About RAPID

Back Row (L-R): Mary Blowick, Geraldine O’Callaghan, Dervilla McCarrick, Elizabeth King, Michelle McMorrow, Fintan Hanson, Deirdre Lavin
Front Row (L-R): Patricia Dennison, Pamela Andison, Ann Donegan, Chris Gonley
Absent Members: Councillor Marcella McGarry, Dorothy Clarke, Mary Hough, Sgt Philip Maree, Trevor Sweetman
 

Membership of Sligo RAPID AIT includes:

• Ann Donegan, Sligo Northside
• Chris Gonley (Chairperson), Sligo Leader Partnership Co.
• Councillor Marcella McGarry, Sligo Borough Council
• Deirdre Lavin, Sligo Sport & Recreation Partnership
• Dervilla McCarrick, Community Representative
• Dorothy Clarke, Director of Services, Sligo County Council
• Elizabeth King, Sligo Family Resource Centre
• Fintan Hanson, Dept. Social Protection
• Geraldine O’Callaghan, HSE
• Vacant, FAS
• Mary Blowick, Sligo Borough Council
• Mary Hough, Sligo Education Centre
• Michelle McMorrow, Community Representative
• Pamela Andison, RAPID Coordinator,
• Patricia Dennison, Community Representative
• Sgt Philip Maree, Sligo Garda Station
• Trevor Sweetman, Sligo VEC

The RAPID Programme (Revitalising Areas through Planning Investment and Development) was launched in 2002 by the Minister for State for Local Development Eoin Ryan T.D. The RAPID Programme is now managed by Pobal under the auspice of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. There are now 46 areas in cities and towns around Ireland involved in the RAPID Programme, including the following parts of Sligo Town:

1. Cranmore Estate
2. Forthill Estate / Cartron Estate
3. Garavogue Villas / Doorly Park
4. St. Joseph’s Terrace / St. Brigid’s Place / Pilkington Terrace
5. Maugheraboy / Jinks Avenue / Tracey Avenue

The RAPID Programme has three specific objectives:

1. To develop a specific integrated policy focus, across the Social Inclusion Measures identified in the National Development Plan, directed at the social groups who are excluded, especially where cumulative disadvantage is pervasive.
2. To tackle, in particular, the spatial concentration of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion within the 25 identified designated disadvantaged areas.
3. To stem the social and economic costs of social exclusion by developing a range of integrated measures such that the physical, social and community infrastructure of designated communities is developed to allow them harness the social capital and capacity necessary for economic and community development.  

The following Principles underpin the implementation of the programme:

• Community Participation and Local Ownership
• Promotion of Strategic Planning
• Co-ordination of provision of State Services
• Targeting of additional services, investment and facilities
• Building on Existing Structures
• Complementing existing initiatives

Sligo Rapid Programme

A Focus on Disadvantage

Vision: “For communities and agencies to work together with a common purpose to eliminate disadvantage within the five RAPID areas of Sligo”

The RAPID Programme in Sligo is co-ordinated at a local level by Pamela Andison based in the Community and Enterprise Department and by an Area Implementation Team comprising of the following agencies – FAS, VEC, Department Social and Family Affairs, Sligo LEADER Partnership Company, Health Services Executive, Sligo Education Centre, Sligo Borough Council, Sligo County Council, Garda Siochana and three community representatives representing the RAPID communities. The remit of the Area Implementation Team (AIT) is to take responsibility for the planning and implementation of the programme locally. The RAPID Programme is monitored by the City/County Social Inclusion Measure (SIM) group to ensure that all plans developed are fully integrated with the CDB and agency strategies.

Check out the work of the RAPID Urban project http://www.seupb.eu/media/Project_Case_Studies.aspx