Villierstown Education and Culture Project CLG

Development through an Eco-tourism base

This organisation has been involved in several different projects such as the participation in government-led job activation programmes for unemployed people or the development of a fully equipped boathouse at Villierstown Quay to provide facilities to visit the area and to enhance the safety of the river Blackwater for recreational users.  Their main one however is the provision of a community-based Montessori Preschool service to the children of the Community.

For this project, they are focussing on the river Blackwater. With the Villierstown Quay boathouse as base, they want to provide additional facilities and services for visitors of all ages and abilities. The objective is to establish an Eco-tourism base on the river Blackwater. They already bought two passenger boats, and they now need to establish and kit out a base of operations and to develop a website to get this initiative off the ground.

Funding provided by the VINCI UK Foundation: £3,000.

This grant will help this organisation get closer to their final target, which is to get a functional Eco-tourism base to enhance the community feeling through the involvement of a big project, and to develop the area through the arrival of more tourists.

VINCI Sponsor: Liam O’Brien, General Manager, McDonnell Pilling.

• Liam is already an active member of the organisation, as he even served as its Director in the past.
• He will be involved in this project’s management and execution.