Bailieborough - Cootehill

BAILIEBOROUGH - COOTEHILL MUNICIPAL DISTRICT
WELLBEING STATEMENT 2020

Health (Physical & Mental)

Vision: Life in our areas can be enhanced by a better balance of physical and mental wellbeing within which we as people can grow and become heroes of our own lives through community support, physical access and mental pathways to being better human beings.

A greater investment and awareness of mental wellness and the causes of mental ill health are needed. More affordable Councilling services, training such as SafeTALK and ASSIST alongside workshops on bullying will help to create an understanding and better mitigation of mental health issues at a community grass roots level. Intergenerational links can also bring older wisdoms to bear on troubled younger minds and a connection between healthy minds and bodies realized through initiatives such as Healthy Cavan. Only through methods such as these can we begin to heal the hurt in the minds and hearts of our communities and intervene in them before they take our loved ones lives.

Ensure physical and mental wellness is dignified and access enabled to all.Groups such as Cavan Disability Network should be supported in highlighting access issues and recognized for their work in doing so. A reduction of concrete only spaces would make it a happier community to enjoy in its amenities and development of rights of way, tracks and accessible hiking routes will make being active easier, accessible and enjoyable for all.

We cannot be mentally well without being physically happy so to ensure a rounded happiness an integrated physical and mental wellbeing course should be developed for the county and perhaps a ‘wellness festival’. The development of walking and cycle tracks should be used and supported and events such as The Walking Festival attended by community members to show we support such. The Healthy Cavan Initiative and Sports Partnership are a great way to find out about community physical health. The body is the vehicle for getting us around and being more content in ourselves, happy health and better eating and fitness is a key to be rounded and more happy humans.

It takes a village to raise a child so a healthy person grows from a healthycommunity. Intergenerational interactions, methods of generating and harnessing kindness and compassion are the roadways to a sustainable and self sufficiently happy community. Volunteer supports through volunteering notice boards, safer communities through shared communications and a day to celebrate our older community members and thank them would be excellent to generate a community health were generosity and thankfulness are cherished. Health is not merely mental and physical but can be in the atmosphere of a community through its charity, kindness and care toward one another and its visitors.

Work, Economy & Resources

Vision: The local business person needs our support and in exchange we will reap the harvest of a resilient and locally flourishing economy. Our towns, villages and communities will be the envy of rural Ireland in making our work our own by feeling the direct impacts of sustainably supported local development.

Our local economy is the grass roots of our communities and we cannot be well in our wellbeing unless our local enterprises are supported. Shopping local, supports and training for local business owners, accessibility grants for local shops and businesses and developing local business hubs and clubs with guest speakers will help our entrepreneurs stay ahead of the larger companies in rural Ireland.

Being aware of global imports and choosing in-season local produce will help our local producers. Less money leaving the island means more money here which should be diverted not into profits but fairer wages for workers who are encouraged to spend locally again in turn. This closed loop system of supports for local economy will assist us as an island to become more resilient to international crises while putting more money in the pockets of the everyday person in our communities, both business owner, worker and customer.

A sustainably developed locally supported business plan is needed which is a roadmap to a greater sense of empowered local business and one which cannot only provide jobs but also provide the greening of our planet and the smarter and better way of doing business.

Social & Community Development

Vision: Our homes have shrunk to the houses we live in. Through active engagement, empowerment and supported strategies we want to take back our sense of belonging in our communities and expand our sense of ‘home’ to the streets and localities within which we live and will once again call ‘our own’.

Spatial strategies can positively influence social and community development for all the segments of society in an area. Alcohol free spaces, youth cafes, forest schools and green spaces with accessibility to all areas for all peoples will make communities a more enjoyable home for our people. In recent years ‘home’ has shrunk to the houses we live in, we need to expand our sense of home and belonging to the street, village and county we live in and making spaces our own is a way to do this.

Ensure that citizens are actively engaged in this process. Community engagement through PPNs and voluntary engagement through the Volunteer Centre is a start but these also need supports for publicity etc which are lacking and people are unaware of their benefits as a result.

Supports to encourage this engagement are then needed which include addiction studies, diversity celebrations, peer-led wellbeing hubs and befriending schemes will all ensure a quality of community for all the citizens of our county and island.

Participation, Democracy & Good Governance

Vision: Community and Political partnerships can and will provide for a society which is strong, positive and engaged. Along with genuinely listening and acting with our community members a community which acts as a team can have far reaching effects to enrich and empower itself.

Consistent delivery by local leaders, both community and political, is needed and for their working together on a Municipal District level. Joint meetings between the PPN-elected reps and their correspondent political representatives would be of great benefit to encourage participation due to the present feeling that community representation is taken as tokenistic at times. Empowered communities will volunteer more and ensure assistance is given to projects in local areas when needed.

Regular listening exercises should be undertaken to see what issues are affecting ideas and fed back to the Councils, national and other organizations. Consultations are at present based on narrow topics such as broadband or roads and very few as true listening exercises. This would allow community members the freedom to feed-in their local issues. PPNs might be asked to undertake these every few years if possible.

Ensure a ‘Green Watchdog’ across all departments at a local and national level to encourage greater sustainability throughout, rather than a small section of any one organization. This will help to bring about a greener and more sustainable future from the top down.

Values, Culture & Meaning

Vision: Our traditional heritage in combination with the new diversity of 21st century Ireland should be the driving force to a vibrant and living society and bring meaning to its members who can live in an Ireland of peace and cultural plenty.

Our heritage is a vital fabric of our social identity. Celebrating and promoting our heritage for locals and visitors alike would be of great benefit through community engaged heritage plans, old craft workshops, language and tradition displays and intergenerational projects around skills sharing and funded apprenticeships for heritage crafts. Our identity gives us meaning,let’s revel in rediscovering our culturally rich society in Cavan.

New Irish cultures enrich and beautify us. Multicultural awareness talks in schools and communities, diversity celebrations and cultural ambassadors are vital. We can only grow as an Irish society if we change and the positive change these new cultures are bringing with them should be highlighted and brought within to our great advantage and benefit.

From a natural heritage point of view we need to be more respectful to the landscape nature has provided us in Ireland. Respecting hedgerows, passing on a green and beautiful land to future generations and rewilding derelict spaces will create a beautiful and amazing physical culture to flourish our metaphysical culture as people.

Environment & Sustainability

Vision: Awareness is only the first step to actions in making our communities care. The green revolution should happen from within our very lives and spread outwards into communities, villages, towns and nations of the world to make it a better and more brilliant planet to give our future generations.

Education, awareness and support will enable the sustainable development of resilient and greener communities. Local environment think tanks such as SeenDoo and the SECs should be encouraged and pathways to greening your life undertaken through personal eco-pledges for people, agencies and community groups outlining what they will aim to do each year and how they’ve met these targets. Supporting local environment groups in the PPNs, denying climate denial, healthy soil and water, eco-toolkits and reducing ‘fast fashion’ are key workshop ideas which could be rolled out. Attend local events to show that we value these vital topics.

Developing biodiversity plans, sustainable planning regulations and heavier impacts on littering and dumping along with better green spaces, eco corridors, derelict space and land-banks for carbon sequestering are all valuable methods to assisting in the global mission to reverse climate change. We need to encourage workshops for ALL citizens in ALL areas and not simply ones for environmentally interested people. We have for too long preached to the converted and need to undertake real change into areas of our local society which is not being brought into change to make a greener and more sustainable world.

Use public transport, grow your own, leave recycling at point of purchase, buy local and in season, reduce your food waste. All these are actions we can personally undertake to make the world a better place. Simple tiny pledges can make the world a better place by our in-life actions. Fitting these to people and inspiring them to undertake them is the key to being a better people in an ever improving world.

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