MAYOR of Limerick’s Metropolitan District, Cllr Michael Sheahan, has praised Milford Care Centre’s Compassionate Communities project for bringing people together to help each other through the difficult issues of death, dying, loss and care.
Speaking at the Compassionate Communities Project Seed Grant Awards and Film Launch last Friday, Cllr Sheahan (FG) reflected on the importance of communities joining together to support people during difficult times, when people can be at their most vulnerable.
“Milford Care Centre’s Compassionate Communities project is reigniting the old concept of ‘Meitheal’ bringing people together to help each other through the difficult issues of death, dying, loss and care,” he commented.
The Project Seed grant scheme, now in it’s third round of awards, recently invited applications for brilliant ideas that can make a difference to how communities engage with issues around death, dying, loss and care.
The grants, which are matched with direct funding, or funding in kind, from community groups, have been awarded to projects including: Le Chéile Youth Space Factory; Bedford Row Family Project; Abbeyfeale Town Park and Glorach Community Theatre; University Hospital Limerick; West Limerick School Completion Project and Abbeyfeale Spiritual Garden of Remembrance Project.
Compassionate Communities Project co-ordinator, Dr Kathleen McLoughlin, commented, “It’s wonderful how communities can get an idea off of the ground with just a small amount of funding that can make such a difference to other people.”
In addition to the awarding of seed grant funding, the Compassionate Communities Project also launched two new short films. The films, developed by recent UL Computer Science graduates, known as Bold Pup Media led by Killian Stone encourage people to think and talk about their wishes at the end of life.
CEO of Milford Care Centre, Pat Quinlan, stated, “The new films are absolutely excellent, and reflect how, by working in partnership with the University of Limerick we are able to develop new resources and in turn offer young graduates an opportunity to gain experience and knowledge in the field of death, dying, loss and care. We wish the best of luck to the seed grant recipients and look forward to seeing the projects up and running later this year.”
The next round of grant funding will open for submissions in September 2015. To find out more, log on to www.compassionatecommunities.ie.
