Thank you for attending our ‘Introduction to LEADER funding’ webinar
Thank you for attending our ‘Introduction to LEADER funding’ webinar on Tuesday 25th May, in conjugation with The Wheel. There were 105 attendees from organisations across Ireland and we received exceptionally high feedback. Our consultant, Patricia Keenan, outlined what LEADER is and the steps required to avail of this funding for rural organisations.
The LEADER programme is an EU initiative to support rural development projects initiated at the local level in order to revitalize them, whilst supporting economic development, social inclusion and rural environment. LEADER supports job creation, entrepreneurship, projects that tackle current issues and encourages rural communities to build on their strengths & assets.
Since 1991, LEADER became widely recognized as having been a successful pilot instrument to mobilise local actors in a bottom-up, territorial and integrated approach to pursue local development in rural areas.
There are 7 key principles to achieving LEADER funding:
- Area based local development strategies
- Bottom up elaboration and implementation of strategies
- Local public-private partnerships
- Integrated and multisectoral actions
- Innovation
- Cooperation
- Networking
A key focus of the webinar was providing information to communities who have not received funding before, and plan to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patricia outlined how important it is for rural organisations to use innovative strategies to combat issues risen throughout the past year.
During the webinar, the 105 attendees interacted in our polls, giving an insight into how many people have received LEADER funding previously. At the end of the presentation, there was a Q&A, where Patricia answered over 20 questions from organisations across Ireland.
If you would like to find out more about LEADER funding, contact Patricia Keenan.
