Our Social Enterprise, Castle Designs was also funded by the Town & Village Renewal Grant. Under this funding we purchased specialised equipment which allows locals, businesses and tourists to purchase bespoke gifts depicting stunning images of landscapes and heritage features from this locality. This promotes the wide range of stunning assets in the area and creates income and employment opportunities for local people. It also addresses social isolation issues (which have been highlighted by Covid 19) through bringing like-minded people together and providing them with opportunities to upskill in bespoke crafts. The type of goods produced are t-shirts, mugs, plates, slates, jigsaws, pens, keyrings etc.

Furthermore, a working arrangement has been fostered with The Cornmarket project in New Ross which is focused on drug rehabilitation programmes and runs a similar social enterprise. It is envisioned that Castle Designs and Fethard Community Development Association will leverage the experience in The Cornmarket Project to help our young people with drug issues locally and also form a partnership in the production of the merchandise.