Cairde Eochair (Friends of Augher)
TRUSTEES REPORT 2022 / 2023
Purpose and Objectives of Cairde Eochair (Friends of Augher)
OBJECTIVES
To promote the benefit of the inhabitants of the village of Augher and its environs without the distinction of age, sex, race, political, religious or other opinion by promotion of all Cumann Luthchleas Gael games, language and Irish culture, through assistance with participation in Sport, Scor na nOg and Scor programmes, with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.
To promote the advancement of public education and to stimulate and create interest in the arts for the benefit of the local community, particularly but not exclusively by:
(a) assistance with the presentation of performances, festivals and cultural events:
(b) the provision of training in the performance of artistic works.
(c) to obtain, collect and receive money by way of grants, donations, bequests, legacies or other lawful methods, provided that the Association may not engage in any form of permanent trading. All income such as donations and grants will be used for the betterment of the Charity beneficiaries.
Activities for reporting year:
In setting our objectives and planning our activities for the year the trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission NI’s guidance on public benefit to ensure that the activities have helped to achieve the charity’s purpose and provide a benefit to beneficiaries.
During the year the charity delivered a number of projects to help deliver its objectives. Much of our efforts have been focused on the development of programmes in Augher that ultimately benefited the wider community of our rural area. Young people have often taken the lead in our organisation and has helped develop youth leadership in our community, and young people taking action where it hasn’t happened before (for example via through our youth led after schools programme).
We also delivered a number of wider community outreach and engagement surrounding our catchment of Augher and secured specific grants to help develop initiatives such as from the Community Foundation, Sport NI match funding via Crowdfunder, PHA Developing Healthy Clear Small Grants to name a few. This enabled us to deliver Community outreach and programme delivery, which is a key priority of our charity.
We have built up strong partnerships with other local community groups in Augher such as Tullymeadows Community Association. This has allowed us to deliver programmes for older people in our community as well.
Examples of our day to day work during this reporting period included providing opportunities for young people to learn and partake in poetry, singing, acting, language as well as arts and crafts. For example, as noted, we delivered an after school programmes for young people twice per week, as well as adult Irish language classes.
A large element of our community work during this reporting period was to support those in our community and persons who are living alone and/or unemployed by providing them opportunities to become active in community activities and programmes.
We had a pool of older men and woman for example who helped maintain shared outdoor spaces around Augher and did gardening across the village and that type of civic duty activity. This provided opportunities for community members to participate in the creation and/or enhancement of spaces locally; As well as ensuring that spaces are available locally for the community to utilise for exercise, and better overall mental health.
Friends of Augher worked to assist older men and women with accessing volunteering opportunities, many of whom had mobility issues but wanted to stay involved in community activity because it allowed them to get out of the house, meet people and socialise. Much of our day-to-day community programmes during this reporting period were about promoting better mental & emotional well-being of our older population, who felt more connected to their community and felt less isolated because they were meeting more people regularly through the activities of our charity. Our reporting period was during Covid19 and much of our work was on immediate support for those most vulnerable in our community- i.e the elderly isolating and persons with disabilities. Our support involved connecting with wider community groups
locally, collaborating and delivering food and supplies to those who could not leave the house themselves. Our main focus thereafter was on helping our community and friends across Augher to build back from Covid19 and to "get out of the house" and back among the community again now that Covid is hopefully behind us.