Report
Community Engagement Partners CEO Ciaran Lynch has over 20 years’ experience in the community and economic development sector. Since setting up his own business (Community Engagement Partners) 5 years ago, they have been involved in life-long learning, enterprise development and support, marketing and facilities with a focus on climate action and sustainability.
The CEP broadly addresses a wide range of the SDGs through its work with its community partners in a number of ways, primarily through advocation, community development and training. While the CEP doesn’t focus on the SDGs at a holistic level it does work within a number of the areas such as Sustainable Cities and Communities and Climate Action. Our work with Local and National authorities means that we work directly with policy makers and community leaders across Ireland. The central idea around all our work is that communities are central to changes that affect them and that policy makers interact and deal with these in a collaborative manner. As mentioned, CEP already deal with a number of the SDGs, integrating more of these into the work of the CEP is possible when connecting with the right partners and research activities. Through the work with the local authorities, CEP can have a direct and indirect input in further areas such as No Poverty, Quality Education and Clean water and Sanitation.
In dealing with research partners, through programmes such as developing climate action plans, climate training programmes and economic programmes, CEP has been able to develop information that helps the public and local authorities achieve a great understanding of the SDGs. CEP along with its research and community partners aim to clear out some of the confusion around community action by helping the public see the different options that are available and appropriate and implementable.
CEP is aware that climate action and all the activities that go with this is a complex system that has many moving parts. We continue to ensure that when we are dealing with the public that we are giving localised baseline information that is applicable to community needs. If we don’t properly assess the needs, detail the requirement and establish a work plan then the programme and/or training will not work.
In general, we notice that anyone we work with will already have an established profile within this area. We require that anyone completing work understands the needs of community development work and the role of climate action in this arena. A big aspect that is required outside of the knowledge base is strong communication skills as dealing with concerned citizens can be quite involved. This can take time to develop as communication and on-the-go problem solving is a skill that needs to be developed overtime and something that needs to be developed more during an undergraduate/postgraduate programme.
Any sustainability and climate/community development programmes need to not only expand on the knowledge base but create a holistic overview is developed including management, communication and problem-solving.