Moygownagh Community/Text Alert Group
To get in contact with Moygownagh Community Alert:
e: moygownaghcommunityalert@gmail.com
Check out the Moygownagh GAA and Community Facebook page and local newsletter for our meetings and activities. Thanks!
Aims and Actions of our Group
Register of the Elderly:
The register of the elderly was formed and about 10 elderly/vulnerable householders consented to Garda Visits
Signage
The committee felt that it was important that every entrance into parish is included when planning the number of signs. Planning permission was required from County Council and our Chairman took care of this.
The Committee also agreed that Public Liability insurance would have to be paid when signs went up.
All householders were given a sticker for the kitchen window with the number of the local Garda Station
BeAlert Text Service
We consulted with our local Gardaí and then proceeded to set up the service. We visit each house in the parish once a year to renew the text alert service and to see what other services each household may need. We also encourage members to download the Cairde app. We use the text service for messages that need to be sent to every house in the parish. We use the Cairde App for day to day things like ……”cow on the road” etc
Seniors Alert Scheme
A notice was initially put in the local bulletins with all details regarding Safety Pendants including the cost after initial year. Community Council members then chatted to neighbours and encouraged the elderly and those living alone to invest in them. The Secretary and one other committee member took responsibility for ordering pendants.
Once a year we organise an awareness campaign around the Safety Pendants. We also include an information leaflet regarding the pendants for each household in the parish which is delivered by the local rep
Carbon Monoxide Alarms
Muintir na Tíre supplied free Carbon Monoxide alarms for vulnerable or elderly parishioners to Community Alert Groups. The Moygownagh Community Alert Group applied for alarms for all residents that requested them
COVID
The Community Alert team supported cocooning/vulnerable parishioners during the Covid pandemic (shopping, cooking meals, picking up prescriptions etc.) We did this with the support of the local GAA club.
We communicated with the parish during covid using the Be Alert text messaging service as well as the local parish bulletin. We ensured that each household was part of a “Bubble” during the lockdowns.
Meetings were held with the executive where necessary during the first lockdown and minutes were emailed to all members. In 2021 we were once again in Lockdown so our AGM was held via zoom
Christmas
All committee members are asked to ensure that each elderly/vulnerable household has someone to support them during the Christmas season when services are often not available. Christmas dinner and support shopping etc. is offered where needed
Communication
The BeAlert messaging service is used to communicate alerts or important parish messages.
We use our local Church and Parish bulletins:
to advertise our Text Alert Service and our Senior Alert Scheme
to provide short synopsis of our AGM.
To inform householders that committee members will be paying a visit during a particular month.
To alert householders to be aware of various online “Scams” etc. which may be happening.
We have a yearly visit to all houses in the parish and we give householders an information leaflet on Community Alert activities and services.
Notices about meetings are placed in the local parish bulletin and new members are always welcome. Reminders are sent via email and what’s app text to all current members. All the minutes of committee meetings are sent to committee members via e mail. During Lockdown it was sometimes necessary to hold meetings via Zoom.
Our beginnings…
Following on from a Community Council Meeting, a public information meeting was held in Moygownagh Community Centre on the 20th February 2019 with a view to regenerating Moygownagh Community Alert. Bernard Kearney, Community Development officer for Muintir na Tíre and representatives from the local Gardaí were in attendance. The meeting decided to set up the Moygownagh Community Alert/Text Alert committee. The aims of our Community Alert are:
To prevent crime.
To set up a Text alert for the area.
To support older and vulnerable people in our community.
To liaise with Gardaí, Health officials, Social Services and other community groups.
To compile a list of elderly to be visited for the group and Gardaí.
To avail of any grants for the elderly.
To encourage the community to be alert at all times.A decision was taken at this meeting to elect the officers of the committee and that the rest of the committee would be formed by representatives from different areas in the parish at a later date. The Executive met in February 2019.
The main decisions taken at that first meeting were:
• A charge of €10 per parish household to help run the committee and fund the text alert service.
• The parish will be divided into the electoral areas for the purpose of CommunityAlert visitation and representation.
• In an appeal to the wider community to volunteer to participate, we sought at least one representative from each of the electoral areas and 2 from those of larger population as outlined.
All committee members sign a GDPR form with a choice of consenting to receive emails and/or text messages from the executive. Our Constitution was adopted.
Following on from our initial meetings every house was visited in the parish over the next 3 to 4 weeks. We had a 95% positive response. There are over 150 houses in the parish and we had 146 households wanting to sign up to the text alert.
Aims/Objectives in the Future
During Covid our main link in the parish was to our GAA club as they had similar communication links to us. However over the next few years we hope to link with more organisations e.g. Community Council in projects and programmes that will help the parish diaspora as a whole. We have elected a Community Council Representative at our A.G.M.