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Tag Archives: Obair

Council supportive of move to enhance services to Clare elderly

CLARE County Council has pledged to lend community development assistance to any local voluntary group that establishes a proposed new meals on wheels service for elderly people in West and North Clare. This follows a call from Councillor Cillian Murphy and Councillor Joe Garrihy for the West Clare MD, Age Friendly Clare, and the Rural Development Directorate to support local community groups, the HSE and OBAIR Newmarket in the establishment of a meals on wheels and odd job service for West and North Clare. In the context of the population, over 65, living in North and West Clare, many in rural and isolated areas, they pointed out this would enable older people to live healthier and longer in their own communities and to have a consistent regular contact linking them to locally delivered services. Responding to their joint motion at a West Clare Municipal District (MD) meeting on Tuesday, acting Rural Development Senior Executive Officer, Bernie Haugh, said the Directorate …

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Obair to extend its meals on wheels service around the county

ONE of Clare’s most successful community organisations is to expand one of its key services to a number of other areas in the county. Obair Community Development Organisation is expanding its Meals on Wheels service which has been running from Newmarket on Fergus since 2012 to parts of North, East and West Clare. The initiative is being supported by HSE Mid West Community Healthcare. Obair has been in existence in Newmarket on Fergus for over 30 years and has been providing Meals on Wheels since 2012. The community based organisation works with people of all ages to combat social exclusion, as well as supporting older people in the community through the provision of Meals on Wheels. Meals are available primarily to older and retired people who might not be able to cook for themselves due to increasing age, ill-health or isolation. Obair currently provide approximately 200 service users with Meals on Wheels over seven days a week. Currently the service …

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Imogen Brigdale helps to light up Newmarket-on-Fergus

SINCE she was born eight months ago little Imogen Brigdale has lit up the lives of her family, and now she has helped to light up the community of Newmarket-on-Fergus. Residents in Newmarket-on-Fergus have been treated to an illuminating Christmas display this holiday season. The lights were recently switched on by Imogen and her parents Jane O’Leary and Alan Brigdale. The tiny tot has proved an inspirational character having repeatedly defied the odds since her post-natal diagnosis of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). The light display is thanks to a collaboration between the Rise Global Foundation and community development organisation, Obair. Located in the Fairgreen near to the village church, the Christmas tree and light display was unveiled at a fun-filled event earlier this month. David McCourt, who is the founder of Rise and the Chairman of National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for designing, building and operating the new national infrastructure under the National Broadband Plan in partnership with …

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Rise aims to offer foundation for rural Ireland to flourish

Non-profit organisation looks to harness power of connectivity to breathe life into rural communities NEWMARKET resident and National Broadband Ireland chairman David McCourt has launched a new non-profit organisation the Rise Global Foundation. The goal of the organisation is to support businesses and social enterprises, seeking to combine an entrepreneurial mindset with technology to create jobs and pride of place. Last week in Newmarket, Mr McCourt said he wants the new foundation to help rural communities build on the opportunities that the provision of broadband is giving them. “I’ve seen how Newmarket has changed over the last 20 years, we used to have seven shops, now we have one supermarket. We used to have two bakeries, now we have none, we used to have two butchers now we have one. We used to have a woman’s clothing store on the corner. “If you go back 50 or 60 years we used to have a movie theatre. A lot of things …

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Obair steps up the work to serve Clare communities

OBAIR, Newmarket-on-Fergus’ very popular Meals on Wheels service, has increased its output five fold since the onset of Covid-19, going from 50 meals a day, five days a week to now providing 250 meals on average per day, seven days a week. “That required a lot of reorganising,” said Siobhan O’Connell, community development officer and acting manager. “Covid had a huge impact on this part of our business. The elderly were so vulnerable at the outset of Covid that we simply had to expand to ensure that everyone got a hot meal every day. “We had to close our thriving coffee shop and move staff over to Meals on Wheels. We were indebted to the many chefs who volunteered to lend a hand at the outset and within two weeks we had everything running smoothly. “However, we had to start taking orders and payments over the phone and leave food at our customers’ doors, but everyone adjusted.” She said they …

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Funding boost for six Clare communities

SIX towns and villages in Clare have been given a funding boost of just under €800,000 to help local communities adapt to life under Covid-19 restrictions. A total of €779,242 has been allocated to the local projects under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme 2020. €200,000 has been granted to Obair in Newmarket-On-Fergus to regenerate a derelict building on main street. The project will see the construction of a production kitchen, cooking enterprise hubs, a commercial cookery school, holistic space and office suites and a youth cafe. The project aims to help make Newmarket-On-Fergus to be a more sustainable village in which to live, work and socialise. In Kilfenora €200,000 in funding has been allocated for the development of a Universal Access Centre of Discovery for the Burren told through the five senses – sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell. Universal Access will increase capacity to cater for a wider audience and enhance the overall tourism offering. €90,242 funding has …

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Obair’s Meals on Wheels service granted over €90,000 in funding

A CLARE community organisation which has played a vital role in helping the elderly and vulnerable during Covid-19 has been awarded over €90,000 in funding. Obair in Newmarket-on-Fergus will be using the funds to help the South Clare Meals on Wheels service move to a new purpose built state-of-the-art kitchen. The organisation have been granted a total of €91,800 under tranche one of the Covid-19 Stability Fund for community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises. Siobhan O Driscoll, Youth and Community Development Officer at Obair explains the meals on wheels service is currently operating from the community cafe Cafe Fergus, however these facilities are “not suitable” for their needs. Since Covid production from the kitchens has tripled, going from delivering 12,000 meals in 2017 to a projection of 80,000 for 2020. They plan to move to a purpose built kitchen at the €1.4million New Tradaree Social Enterprise centre, with the new facilities able to deliver 250,000 meals a year. …

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€100,000 grant boost for Meals on Wheels new kitchen

NEW Government Covid-19 restrictions on socialising has ensured that a Newmarket-on-Fergus community initiative is extremely busy delivering up to 186 meals daily to vulnerable people in South Clare, Ennis and Shannon. Donations of goods and services like diesel from local businesses are still being offered to Obair’s Meals on Wheels service as their delivery of meals ramps up during the current public health emergency. Obair’s Youth and Community Development Officer Siobhán O’Driscoll says they have about 50 volunteers who are on their books and takes about ten of them to complete daily deliveries on a rota basis. Ms O’Driscoll said they have received huge support from local businesses who have donated hand sanitisers , gloves and other supplies while the HSE are providing personal protective equipment to ensure their volunteers are not at risk of infection. She confirmed that Dromoland Castle general manager, Mark Nolan has offered his team of chefs as a back up if something unexpected happens to …

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