Mayo County Council’s Community Engagement
Date: 27-03-2020
The people of County Mayo are well-respected for their sense of community and togetherness as a county. We look out for one another, stay in touch with one another and rally round to help one another in times of crisis. Mayo County Council’s Community Engagement Team is the official local government office that coordinates the overall response of the county to the Coronavirus crisis.
Head of Community Engagement at Mayo County Council, Liam Hanrahan outlined “Our role is to ensure that the benefits of the response is felt by those who need it most, and that the overall work is in line with the Government Action Plan in response to COVID-19.
Communication is the key to the success of this work, if you are someone who is feeling isolated we want you to know that we are here for you, we want to hear from you, we will reach out to you so that you aren’t alone”
Here’s how we are going about the work of unifying our county’s efforts into one overall hardworking approach. Firstly, we identify the geographic areas and vulnerable groups or individuals where additional community supports are needed and decide on how to best reach them.
We gather information of the groups and individuals who are volunteering, circulate their details through recognised grassroots community networks such as the Public Participation Network, Mayo Sports Partnership, community & voluntary service providers and local development companies. If you are connected to one of these networks keep in touch with them and they will look out for you.
Once we are aware of who requires the support and match them with the most suited community volunteer efforts, we ensure that the most appropriate guidance and protocols are available to safeguard everyone. We are working via online forums to provide short online training seminars on volunteer protocols and how to be proactive, but in a safe manner that respects social distancing.
Finally, we are streamlining our approach so that the volunteer efforts reach as many people as possible and we operate in a coordinated manner to ensure there isn’t a duplicate service, and where possible, work via one committee per area.
How do you find out what’s going on in your locality?
All volunteer groups and individuals made known to us are added to our Community Engagement Map: which can also be found on the homepage of www.mayo.ie
Mayo County Council’s segregates the county into four municipal districts, Ballina, ClaremorrisSwinford, Castlebar and Westport-Belmullet. We have identified all single tenancy social houses in each district, we are making a phone call to each tenant, to check-in on them and make sure they feel supported and part of the Mayo community and we are doing the same in coordination the Gardaí’s vulnerable persons lists.
Researching how local communities are dealing with the current crisis we have a survey that is on-going and available here: Community Engagement Questionnaire:
Of the 133 groups to respond who have put in place some support measures in their community:
- Over 60 of the groups are community groups without staff
- 30 of the groups are community organisations with staff
- 80% of groups have not had any calls about covid-19 yet.
- Of the 20% who have had calls, calls have either been to get shopping/prescriptions or someone just in need of a chat.
- Half the groups have compiled lists of vulnerable people in their community
- Over 90% have enough volunteers in place & enough resources in place to do the work
We will regularly update all information both on the Community Engagement Map and in the News section of www.Mayo.ie, updates will also be found on our social channels @mayodotie and @MayoCoCo.
All community volunteer efforts are or great importance and hugely beneficial to everyone involved. Mayo County Council Community Engagement Team is here to help and to coordinate all the while reiterating Social Distancing guidelines:
For your community, your county, your country
Stay Safe – Stay Strong – Stay Separate