Irish social projects win EU grants of £670,000

EU GRANTS of £670,000 for nine Irish projects dealing with social exclusion were announced by the Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn, yesterday.

With only £5.4 million available, the Commission has been able to help only 86 "demonstration" projects throughout the Community of the 2,000 which applied. The projects range from helping prostitutes quit the business in Vienna to homelessness in London.

Mr Flynn said that the range of applications for grants showed "the abundance of ideas to combat this phenomenon - ideas which exist, waiting to be put into practice, but often remaining blocked due to lack of financial support."

The nine Irish projects include (approximate equivalents for Ecus): Dublin - City Clinic, reintegration of female drug users (£80,000); Community Response, support programme for families of abusers (£43,000); joint urban revitalisation project with London borough of Newham (£323,874); Focus Ireland, integration of a group of homeless women (£72,000); Irish Refugee Council, developing a cultural centre for refugees (£5,400); Quarryvale Community Housing Project (Clondalkin), self-help programme for women victims of domestic violence (£5,800).

Galway - Presentation Women, child and family development in high rise flats (£87,000); Waterford - Respond Support Ltd, programme in housing estate management to foster community self-help (£77,500).

Seven towns - Schizophrenia Society of Ireland, support programme for better integration of poor families and carers coping with schizophrenia (£43,500).