The Sustainable Communities Training Programme aims to train 8 West Cork communities in sustainable development and support them in developing a Sustainability Roadmap for their town/village.

A core Community Development Team will participate in sustainability and project management training and develop a roadmap for their community between September 2021 and May 2022


The programme aims to revive community spirit and assist local people in creating a vision for a community they wish to live in while embracing the global goals set out in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  In each town a community development team will be formed, this team will be trained in sustainability issues and project management and will develop a roadmap for locally led transition initiatives to create resilience in the face of the climate crisis.

Six workshops on climate resilience and sustainability will be delivered to the community development teams by a panel of experts. The workshops are:

  1. The circular economy
  2. Biodiversity and nature connection
  3. Green enterprise
  4. Energy and Transport
  5. Town planning
  6. Sustainable agriculture

The teams will also be trained in project management skills.

The Community Development Team will then be supported in developing a Sustainability Plan for their community. One legacy project from the Plan will be chosen in each community. This project will go on to be developed by an architect to planning permission standards.

While the Sustainability Plan will be developed by the Community Development Team, input from the wider community will be sought at all points to ensure the Sustainability Plan is representative of the needs of the whole community!

Programme partners

The programme is delivered by VOICE,  in collaboration with SECAD, as a part of the LEADER Programme. We also have an amazing panel of experts formed from our project consortium! This panel of experts will deliver our sustainability and project management workshops. The consortium members are:

Programme dates

Eight communities will be selected to participate in the programme in May 2021. The training and roadmap development will begin in September 2021, with the final roadmap completed by May 2022.

How will the programme be delivered?

The programme will be delivered online owing to COVID restrictions. However it is hoped that in the latter part of the programme we can meet within the individual communities!

How can my community get involved?

If you are a community organisation based in West Cork and would like more information, please contact us! Eight communities will be selected to participate in the programme in May 2021.