A COMMUNITY group which has had a taste of success thanks to social finance loans is Blasta Café in County Limerick.
Blasta Café is a community café run by volunteers from Pallasgreen Community Centre and Templebraden Community Council. It received social finance funding through Community Finance Ireland, enabling it to develop its services to the community.
Blasta is one of 2,200 community projects across Ireland benefitting from funds as the Social Finance Foundation marks its €260million lending milestone.
Highlighting the organisation’s advancements, the Community Council’s assistant secretary Stephen O’Neill said: “The social finance loans we received enabled us to bridge a gap in grant funding.”
“With this, we have been able to install a new community playground, sensory garden and walkway and renovate our community hall.
“The hall now hosts exercise classes, youth club activities, and is home to the Blasta Café. These facilities are invaluable for our community, both young and old.”
The Social Finance Foundation has supported 2,220 community projects since 2007.
It is funded by AIB, PTSB, Bank of Ireland, and the Council of Europe Development Bank with additional support from the European Investment Fund.
Term and bridging loans are made available through Social Finance Foundation’s lending partners, Clann Credo and Community Finance Ireland.
A major milestone in the growth of ‘social financing’ was reached as Social Finance Foundation, the non-profit body that enables loan finance for community projects, reported over €262million lent to 2,200 projects since 2007. The average loan value to each organisation was €119,000.