Mission Statement
“To create employment and enterprise opportunities, and measures leading to these, in consultation with the Athlone community, statutory agencies and non-statutory agencies.”
Athlone Community Development Association, which is fully owned by the community, was established in 1992 as an initiative of the Athlone Rotary Club in order to stimulate employment generating activitie
s in Athlone. The Company is a not for profit organisation and has charitable status. The Company’s Registered Business name is Athlone Community Taskforce (ACT). In 1992 the Company purchased a premises in Ball Alley Lane, Athlone and developed a Business Development Centre to provide incubation space for new enterprise and house the Company headquarters and Athlone Community Taskforce. Through effective partnerships between community groups, statutory bodies and social partners, ACT’s main priority was to identify key measures required to combat unemployment and to undertake effective initiatives to counter disadvantage in the community. In 1996, ACT applied for and was successful in securing funding from ADM, now Pobal, under the Local Development Programme,and from 1997, ACT working in partnership with the community and statutory agencies delivered various projects which included:
•After Schools Clubs
•Open Door Men’s Centre
•Athlone Child Minding Initiative
•Food and Health Project
•Training for Employment
•FAS Job Club
•Community Employment Scheme
•Equality for Women Project
•Job Initiative Programme
•Educational Action Research Project
From 2001 to 2008, ACT implemented the successor to the Local Development Programme,the Local Development Social Inclusion Programme. This was funded by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs through the national agency Pobal. The Executive Committee of Athlone Community Taskforce were always keen to develop, implement and mainstream projects so that more time could be devoted to developing new projects. When the Government introduced the national cohesion process, the Executive Committee viewed this as an opportunity to mainstream some of the projects and as a result, the transfer of projects to Westmeath Community Development was very successful and Athlone Community Taskforce was one of the first in the country to complete the cohesion process. Westmeath Community Development also took over the administration of the L.D.S.I.P programme. Athlone Community Taskforce retained the Educational Action Research Project. The transfer of the projects to W.C.D was completed by the end of 2008. ACT is continuously developing projects to encourage Enterprise and Employment and works in collaboration with various agencies to develop and promote such projects.
