Sustainable Cork Fund- Impact Report

Paula Cogan, President Cork Chamber with Noreen Hegarty, CEO of NCE Outreach and Padraic Vallely, Business Development Manager at Rethink Ireland. Picture: Darragh Kane

Cork Chamber and Rethink Ireland recently launched an Impact Report highlighting the positive results and outcomes linked to the Sustainable Cork Fund.

The Fund was developed in 2019 with the goal of increasing the resilience of Cork communities and creating a positive legacy in the region through collective action. €100,000 was raised by Cork Chamber and the local business community, which was then matched by the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund. Little did the donors know at the time what was in store in the year ahead, and just how critical community resilience would be.

The total fund of €200,000 was allocated to three projects working across diverse social causes but which share a common vision of making Cork city and county more sustainable, both socially and environmentally. From education and training supports for migrant women and people undergoing addiction treatment, to reducing the environmental waste of single-use plastics, all three awardees are playing a role in tackling issues that will make our communities more resilient. The three awardees, Nasc, NCE Outreach, and Re ll Ireland, received cash grants and non- nancial supports to the value of €50,000. Together the organisations reached 125 participants and delivered 918 workshops while the Sustainable Cork Fund itself directly supported 5 jobs in these organisations.

Paula Cogan, Chamber President commenting onthe report said: “This fundraising initiative demonstrates that people are keen to take action for the betterment of our communities. Social innovation initiatives have the power to promote social cohesion and build more resilient communities, and we are delighted with the support that our fund received from businesses and individuals, whose donations all contributed to advancing this vision.”

Business Development and Political Engagement Manager at Rethink Ireland, Pádraic Vallely commenting on the outcomes: “It has been phenomenal to see what these three awardee organisations - Nasc, NCE Outreach, and Re ll Ireland - have achieved in less than a year given the right supports and much-needed funding. We are hugely thankful to the individuals and corporate partners who came on board to support the fund and we know that there are others, both in Munster and across the country, who want to make a di erence in their local communities. We would encourage those people to come forward to us at Rethink Ireland, so that we can continue to support Ireland’s best social innovations.”