Cork City supporting Social Enterprise

Cork City supporting Social Enterprise

Cork City Council sees strategic value in social enterprises and since 2017 has been involved in the Atlantic Social Lab project which works to support social enterprises.

The Atlantic Social Lab project (funded by the EU’s Interreg Atlantic Area Programme) has built on this potential and enabled the council to identify and address issues being faced by social enterprises, and the team has been working with experts and key social enterprise activists to provide networking and training to social enterprises through the organisation of workshops on topics such as funding, finance, governance, storytelling, measuring social impact and procurement.

One of these enterprises is Churchfield Community Trust (CCT), a communitybased organisation which believes that all people should have the opportunity and supportive environment to overcome challenges around alcohol, substance misuse and offending behaviour.

CCT collaborates with key statutory and voluntary agencies to establish safer communities through reduction of recidivism; promote re-integration of offenders; provide key strategic addiction interventions; create sustainable employment opportunities and develop pathways to adult education and training.

Churchfield Community Trust (CCT) ‘Compass Crafts’ carpentry team, design and produce garden furniture, playpark items and creche furniture.

The CCT Garden Café initiative provides training and mentoring in a live café environment to men and women who are interested in progressing to employment in the catering industry. Mentoring and certified training is delivered to employees who engage as part of the Garden Café initiative. The Compass Crafts carpentry team, design and produce garden furniture, playpark items and creche furniture.

Special category community employment and continuing adult education initiatives provide a platform for progression to sustainable employment and reintegration within communities of origin for CCT participants. During 2019 the organisation engaged with 316 participants through several interventions. Churchfield Community Trust remains operational in the context of brief and crisis intervention while the core team have adapted to the current challenging circumstances and are collaborating as part of an inter-agency community response re: Covid-19.

For more information see: http://atlanticsociallab.eu/