Lessons from a pilot EU scheme for regenerating marginalised areas, which has been running in Limerick for three years, will be used to devise a new national programme.
The scheme, operated by three local development organisations in Limerick, is being taken over by FÁS, which will administer it nationally.
The pilot scheme involved 171 projects in Limerick city and county getting grants of up to €10,000 from a €1 million fund.
These included a Rural Ladies' Driving Club run by Ballyhoura Development in south-east Limerick and a football club in Moyross, a marginalised part of Limerick.
Ms Carmel Fox, manager of Ballyhoura Development, said when she first heard of the ladies' driving club, she immediately thought of "little ladies" wearing scarves driving vintage cars. "That was the image in my mind initially. They are a mixture of people of different ages. Some of them are people in their late 20s or early 30s, ranging from single parents to long-term unemployed. Public transport does not exist so they need to be able to drive." The group of 10 people who got together from within a 10-mile radius on the Cork/Limerick border applied to Ballyhoura Development for funding after locating a driving instructor, Ms Brigid McCarthy, who had been unemployed.
"The purpose of the programme is about empowering people to come together and do other things."
Ms Sinéad Doody, the project co-ordinator, said the Moyross United Football Club had been experiencing problems because of a lack of volunteers. Funding was made available for gear and for extending the club to include drug awareness, sexual health and cultural development courses. Parents were actively encouraged to become involved.
"Something as small as football for kids in a disadvantaged area can make all the difference but needs so much support.
"At the core of a programme like ours is trying to develop ways in which people will want to feel part of their community again in a way that they feel like volunteering." The "social capital" projects are aimed at empowering people in disadvantaged or isolated areas so they could get employment. "The idea is we try to focus essentially on employment type projects, very much focusing on groups which were not just one or two steps away from employment but seven or eight steps. "It was very much going back to the root of why people could not work. It was not looking at typing classes or computer classes. It was going behind that again." Some 594 applications for the scheme were originally received across the EU, with 30 from the Republic. The joint application by Paul Partnership in Limerick, together with West Limerick Resources and Ballyhoura Development was the only one selected from the Republic or Northern Ireland. "It is very much to bring people together to solve their problems in a group and community environment. Developing relationships and building links is the basis for future growth."