The door is open and the kettle is on. That’s the welcome on offer in Bud’s Family Resource Centre in Ballyduff. It’s a busy place: 250 people a day cross that threshold for all sorts of reasons.

It could be for help filling a form, or getting some information about a medical card or support in a time of crisis. It could be for a get together for one of the many organisations that meet there, from active aged to mothers and toddlers groups. It could be for a computer class or just a cup of tea in the community café that boasts its own cosy fire and armchair area.

Bud’s has a busy kitchen too, preparing meals at reasonable cost (bacon and cabbage is top of the pops apparently) for café customers; for the children’s breakfast club and Buddies community childcare facility that looks after 90 children next door, as well as around 40 dinners a day for its Meals on Wheels customers.

The profits from the café fund the Meals on Wheels enterprise. But what are they spending their €10,000 prize money on?

“We’re spending it on a new van for the Meals on Wheels,” Nora Lucid, project coordinator at the centre, says. “Having the van will do two things: highlight what we do and give people a sense of security, knowing it’s the Meals on Wheels van that’s arriving. At present volunteers go with different cars every day, which can be a worry for people afraid of who’s coming into the yard. Now they’ll know it’s us every time.”

I chat by the fire with Nora; retired residents Bob and May Scott, who’ve been involved since Bud’s was set up; Anthony O’Carroll of the Men’s Shed; Nora’s husband Paddy (a voluntary maintenance man); Shane Legg, a youth worker; and Katie McCabe, administrator.

So many things go on in the centre that it’s difficult to list them all.

Born of a HSE pilot programme after Ballyduff was designated a disadvantaged area, the need for a resource centre was identified by the HSE in 2000. It is situated in what was a landmark grocery and hardware shop in the village, owned by a Jim O’Neill, nicknamed “Bud” by his granny, according to the group.

The name has been lovingly adopted for the centre, because it was welcoming and familiar in the town and also meant new growth/start, making people more likely to pop in if they needed help. A limited company was set up in 2001.

“We started with a jobs club and we haven’t stopped since,” Nora says.

Once an old building, it has been well restored, with all the rooms named after local areas to give people a sense of place and ownership.

Ballyduff has the same challenges as any other village, urban or rural, however, Nora says. “We have unemployment, early school leaving and anti-social behaviour sometimes.

“Free drugs and alcohol counselling is available here to help those who need it as well as marriage and relationship counselling. MABS comes in too. In any village there are people who need help, and in Bud’s we make that help available. We run outreach programmes as well, where they’re needed,” she says.

LACK OF TRANSPORT

Transport is a big issue in the village, she says. “Even if a young person got a job in Listowel or Tralee, for example, there is no transport system to avail of to get them there. There’s a community bus twice a week, but that’s all,” explains Nora.

“Unless you have a car at your disposal, how do you go to a job? Even if you get one, when you’re quoted the likes of €9,000 for insurance. Agriculture and construction used to be big employers, but not anymore. Broadband isn’t good around here or mobile phone reception either – other issues we’re fighting to get improved,” she says

So, is Nora the driver of Bud’s? “She’s a marvellous person, there’s no stopping her, she just keeps going and going and we help where we can,” say Bob and May Scott, who retired to Ballyduff, and are involved with the centre from the beginning.

FUNDING CUTS HAVE CREATED DIFFICULTY

“We work with people from the cradle to the grave,” Nora says, “and we have very active volunteers. We couldn’t manage without them, because our funding has been reduced by €60,000 over the past four years. We don’t know whether we are going to survive. It’s an awful thing to say, after winning all these awards –but one thing’s for sure: we’re putting the work in and the need is there.”

The Men’s Shed idea was developed from a HSE pilot mental health programme. Attendees make items like garden furniture and kindling, ploughing profits back into the Shed.

A polytunnel is planned, along with teaching young people how to grow vegetables.

Youth work is very important to everyone too. “I help Nora run the Thank God It’s Friday club, the My Zone and Drop Zone clubs for the different age groups,” says Shane Legg, a father himself, who originally came to the centre on a TUS programme and is now doing a course in community development.

While organisers would really appreciate more help from parents at the youth clubs. However, they appreciate that many parents are time-pressed.

Active Aged representatives have also noticed that many grandparents are minding children and are unable to attend events at Bud’s. “They are sort of held by it, and I feel they are missing out on a lot,” May Scott says.

Speaking with administrator Katie McCabe, it’s obvious that securing ongoing funding is stressful.

“We need funds to keep going. It can be quite stressful. The biggest challenge is getting long-term funding. Politicians come through the door and tell you you’re doing great, but we need them to fight for resources for us.

“The work that’s done here ripples out, helping the whole community,” concludes May. CL

Tips for other villages