CCDP are now seeking expressions of Interest from community groups who are interested in participating in our SMART VILLAGES training in September

Carlow County Development Training 2023

SMART Villages – Rural communities that build on their strengths & assets while also developing new opportunities.

Carlow County Development Partnership CLG is pleased to announce a new training programme to assist local communities to develop innovative Smart Villages strategies.  This is a central theme of the forthcoming LEADER programme 2023-2027 which will be launched in the autumn.

What are Smart Villages?
Smart Villages are communities in rural areas that use innovative solutions to improve their ability to adapt to change, building on local strengths and opportunities.

This 3min video by the European Network for Rural Development explains the concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckB71hb0kx0

Why are Smart Villages important?
Smart Villages work as a collective, implementing innovate projects which improve the quality of living for all. Smart village projects can be realised in areas such as transport, energy, governance, digital connectivity, health, local enterprise, remote working.

How do we know the Smart Village concept works?
A number of pilots have been delivered in villages across the EU. Most recently multiple villages in the Alpine region developed a number of Smart Village projects. Projects ranged from the creation of a local producers’ selling platforms to help shorten supply chains, operating a citizen taxi to address transport issues and one remote village secured a company to bring fibre broadband to their area.

Participating villages have shared their projects, approaches and outcomes here: https://smart-villages.eu/language/en/home/

What is involved:

The training programme has been developed by rural development specialist Ian Dempsey, Prescience. He will guide participants through an enlightening, informative and interactive programme exploring opportunities for social, economic and environmental development linked to key themes. These include the Sustainable Development Goals; Health and well-being; Resilience; Digital Transformation; Decarbonisation, Climate Action; Biodiversity; Community Wealth Building and others.  The use of case studies and best practice examples will help develop participants’ knowledge and understanding of themes and concepts such as the background and ethos of the Smart Village concept. The programme will ready groups to access future EU funding for Smart Villages initiatives.

Programme details:

An introductory Seminar took place at Saint Laurence O’Toole’s Athletic Club on May 27^th. This was a free event and was well attended by the community. The slides from the event are available here

This programme will provide the opportunity to employ practical ideas and actions within your own communities and avail of upcoming events and training. The programme will run for 3 Saturdays bi weekly during the month of September.

This training programme has been supported by Carlow Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) and funded through the Transitional LEADER Rural Development programme 2021 – 2022.

Communities interested in learning more about the course and potentially participating are invited to submit an expression of interest form by August 16^th by clicking below. 

For more information regarding the training :

Please contact:

Cherish Kinsella – Rural Development Officer – Carlow County Development ckinsella@carlowdevelopment.ie

086 – 4121731