CAMA launches to save Community Sector

by David McCarthy Wed Dec 02, 2009 01:22

There is a conspicuous lack of online discussion about this issue. The Community Workers Co-Operative has, true to form, come up with a short and well-written position statement. But where is the public reaction & discussion online? If anybody can point me in the direction of one, please oblige me.
Meanwhile I have some questions and points to kick off something here.
First, am I alone in thinking that the current crisis in the Community Development Programme began when CRAGA Minister Eamon Cuiv began his flawed mission to streamline the landscape of local and community development? He has been pushing for these changes since long before the panic surrounding the public finances.
Second, while acknowledging that many CDP staff and volunteers fear being muzzled or worse under Partnership Company structures, is it all bad news? I would have thought that the injection of CDP vision and community development principles and practice would be a welcome boost for at least some Partnership Companies. It might even, in some cases, result in a shake-up in Partnership Companies which have allowed gaps to open between the rhetoric and the reality.
Third, it is difficult to be anything other than cynical about the emphasis on evaluation of the CDPs. I remember when there was a so-called evaluation of the Citizen Traveller campaign some years ago. The poorly argued reasons for shutting it down were made more nauseating by the fact that official government reaction to the campaign had been uniformly positive up until a few months before it was shut down.
Fourth, on the more general question of evaluation, do we as community workers simply accept it as a fact of life, when we do not see evidence of any evaluation of other, much more costly, government expenditures? When was the last time we saw any serious evaluation of our prison system? Or of that part of FAS that provides training for young disadvantaged people? Or of the national roads system? Or of any section of the Dept of Education and Science? Would any of them EVER face the risk of closure, for failing to reach some standard? And how dishonest is it to forecast the closure of some CDPs, when any half-decent formative evaluation will point to areas where the projects need to be strengthened.
Fifth, is the Government's agenda with regard to the CDPs clear? It can not simply be about money. Even the most short-sighted hard-nosed officials in the Dept of Finance must see what we see: the investment of core funding attracting additional finances and voluntary expertise that have continued to excite a multiplier effect of community action in areas of economic disadvantage, and within disadvantaged communities of interest. So what is the government's objective here? Any takers?
Sixth, is there any sign of emerging solidarity between CDP staff / volunteers and other interested entities, such as political parties, trade unions, church groups, community workers in the public service?
Seventh, is there any strategy being considered, aside from informing public debate, to save the CDPs? For example, considering the strength of the programme nationally, is anybody talking about making the leap nationally from participative to representative democracy, i.e. by targeting marginal constituencies, and running candidates in the forthcoming General Election? The government will probably fall, and with any luck two or three seats would be enough to bargain for retention of the programme.