The 50th anniversary of CoAction was a good opportunity to look back on how it all began, look ahead to what its new five-year plan aims to achieve, and also take time to understand and honour what matters most to the children and adults it serves.
‘Fundamentally, in 1974, a group of parents and friends of children with an intellectual disability sat around a table and decided that their children should be supported in their community,’ the organisation’s CEO Jillian Connolly told The Southern Star.
‘They started with a school for seven children and it grew in the 1980s to provide adult services. It then moved from Bantry to include centres in Skibbereen, Castletownbere, Dunmanway and Clonakilty.’ State funding for CoAction was provided for the first time in 1990. Everything prior to that was achieved through local fundraising and ‘the will of the community.’
Jillian’s reference to the will of the community was never more in evidence than at the official 50th anniversary celebration on December 18th last.
‘It was a very proud occasion for the founders who attended,’ said Jillian, who also made the point of publicly thanking the organisation’s 130 volunteers who do so much good work year in, year out, and who give up their evenings and weekends to support the organisation.
It is this legion of people, combined with the generosity of the people of West Cork, which has placed CoAction in the fortunate position of having sufficient capital funds to build a €700,000 new facility to provide 40 adults with respite care.
They already own a suitable site at Caherdaniel in Bantry, and now all efforts are focused on the planning process.
All going well, CoAction will have this new facility up and running within the next 15 months. Extra to the capital costs, however, will be its running costs.
‘Once we get to a place where we know the proposed time frame for opening, we will be engaging with our primary funder, which is the HSE, in relation to securing these running costs,’ said Jillian.
‘Getting the best value for money and maximum impact for the people we support is essential,’ she said, ‘because our job is to support people to live their lives the way they want to live their lives.’
That’s no small task given that CoAction supports 182 adults, and has 822 children enrolled in its children’s disability network team, of which 110 have a diagnosis of an intellectual disability.
‘What makes CoAction unique,’ according to Jillian, ‘is the commitment of its staff team because they know the children and adults we support, they know their families, and they are unbelievably committed to supporting all of the individuals.’
‘Individuals’ is the operative word, because the staff team knows what is required by each adult and child, individually. ‘It could be something that some people would consider the smallest thing in the world,’ said Jillian. ‘It could be something that some people wouldn’t think twice about, such as navigating local transport, or accessing the wider community, be it going to SuperValu down the road, or a coffee shop.’
Jillian Connolly, CEO of CoAction, and John Nolan, chairperson of the board.
The CoAction staff team completed surveys, did focus groups, and they have fed into the new five-year plan; they are the ones who on a day-to-day basis are supporting the children and the adults.
‘They are the ones hearing their stories, and they are telling us what we need to do as a service to meet those needs into the future’, says Jillian.
John Nolan, chairperson of the board of CoAction, believes the strategic plan provides a very clear roadmap for the organisation for the next five years, throughout all of its centres in West Cork. CoAction, as an organisation, is vast and has an annual running cost of €11.5m, yet it continues to have a community ethos, said John.
It has 328 full-time and part-time staff across its full range of services, which includes day services, home supports, respite services, residential services, supported living, home sharing and multidisciplinary services to children and to adults.
In the second half of 2025, Jillian said the organisation will, with the support of the West Cork community, have to boost its resources.
‘It is important to recognise there are an awful lot of community events that happen in West Cork where CoAction is a beneficiary’.
Just recently, the CEO attended the Mayor’s Gala Ball in Skibbereen, which benefited both CoAction and Cancer Connect. For CoAction to be recognised is extremely important both communally and financially, according to Jillian, because in addition to the proposed new building, they are looking to provide increased respite services for children.
It is also exploring housing options for the adults it supports, and will also be looking at ‘a complete review’ of how it works with the children, the adults, and their families throughout West Cork in a way that meets their needs, wants and wishes far into the future, for another 50 years, perhaps, and even beyond that again.
