You must be either a pharmacist who has commitment and support from a pharmacy contractor or a 'not for profit' community or voluntary organisation. Statutory organisations eg HSS Trusts, Councils etc can not apply but can support applications and be involved in developing projects.
The best way to explain this is through an example. Imagine you were to sell everything you own (i.e. assets for example; equipment, land etc) would you have enough to pay what you owe (i.e. debts).
Have a look at the guidance notes to start with, especially the section at the beginning and notes on question 6. Community Development is a mixture of things. On the one hand it is about defining needs from a local perspective and on the other, it’s about the movement from; being involved in to working with local people to address their health needs. It is also about evaluating the needs of the targeted group and their current knowledge and expertise. For example, if you plan to work with teenagers, it’s important to see how they view their health, and the knowledge they have about it. Using this as a basis, you should then plan a programme to suit their needs. Community Development is about increasing local people’s understanding of health and the issues surrounding it encourage them to become more involved with their health and in activities in their local community.
It’s always hard to put you work into a policy context whether at local or regional level. But think about it in relation to the group you are targeting. We want you to see the bigger picture, for example, how at a local level your project links into government level. We just want you to have a basic understanding / awareness of some policies.
The panel want you to tell them about the local needs in your area. It’s fine to say that carers are an issue arising across Northern Ireland, but ask yourself why they need support in your local area. Please remember to be realistic and specific here.
We can not fund any capital costs, for example; data projectors, laptops etc. We want to make use of the funding available and thus costs should reflect the partnership nature of the project, so use your questions as a basis to decide what funding you need. For example; if you put down for ten hours of the pharmacist’s work – tell us why? We recognise that your project may involve most vulnerable people, so other professionals may be required to give them support, so you will need to think about costs for them as well. We are here to support both the community group and the pharmacist, but please note that a pharmacist will have to take in a locum from time to time to free themselves to work on the project; so this too needs to be taken into account.
Whether you are a Pharmacist or a Community Group, think about what people, groups, bodies etc. you could have contact with and what’s going on around you. Find out what is happening in your area; ask people, and then think about how you could connect with this. CDHN are a membership oirganisation and we will put all our energy into helping you make links and partnerships or putting you in contact with someone else. Sometimes you’ll be amazed about what is going on locally that you’re not aware of.
This project should be about valuing the skills of the pharmacist, local people and those working across the community, voluntary and statutory sector. It’s not about one person being the expert or having all the knowledge; the partnership is also about developing new skills by learning from others that are involved e.g. a pharmacist learning to work with groups. It’s important that you reflect this is a partnership approach on the application as the panel can easily see if this is not the case. However, we also recognise that partnership working requires time, energy and commitment. We too understand that for many of you this is new, it will be your first time working in partnership but you can learn from this initial stage.
We want you to use the pharmacist skills in different ways and in different settings. Please remember that your Community Pharmacy is a resource. For example, your pharmacist could work with your targeted group in the community setting or they may be needed to work with the more vulnerable people to give advice in the pharmacy, home or community settings. Don’t forget about the pharmacy, it is an important place were you can access other forms of information and support were appropriate the pharmacist and other staff to signpost people onto other areas. To enable them to do that they will need training and support to see what services are out their and what other people/org do.
