Text Box: Sharing of information by organisations on programmes and projects. Development of Social Inclusion Measures Matrix. Consultation with the Kerry County Community & Voluntary Forum. Co-ordinate and report to the National Monitoring Committee of RAPID. Annual Networking event for social inclusion agencies. The members of the SIM group wish to record their thanks to Mr. Paddy O’Callaghan, Chairman, South Kerry Development Partnership Ltd. who chaired the group from its establishment to February of this year. Text Box: The Social Inclusion Measures (SIM) Workgroup of the Board, chaired by Mr. Robert Carey, Manager, North Kerry Together ADM, is continuing its work programme in co-ordinating the work programmes of agencies in the County with a social inclusion remit. In 2002, the SIM Workgroup published an atlas on the various social inclusion measures for target groups in Kerry. The group also acts as the county co-ordinator for the RAPID Programme. In January 2003, the members of SIM agreed an eight point work programme. Development of and agreement on key social inclusion indicators with a particular emphasis on income trends in the County. Publication of local area information leaflets on social inclusion measures. Text Box: The Social Inclusion Measures (SIM) Workgroup of the Board is pressing ahead with the co-ordination of social inclusion agencies in the county.... Sheila Cahill, Staff Officer writes about the workplan of the SIM workgroup while Noreen O’Mahony, Researcher summarises the key points of a report in income recently considered by the Group. Text Box: A report presented to the SIM Workgroup at its April 2003 meeting indicates that Kerry is among the 13 counties with the least disposable income per head in 2000. In fact Kerry is located fourth from the bottom with an annual average disposable income of €12,386. Disposable income means total income less taxes and social insurance contributions. The fact that disposable income in Kerry continues to be well behind the national average is a key issue which both the SIM Group and the Board intend to pursue. The report was based on a Central Statistics Office publication entitled “County Incomes and Regional GDP 2000”.

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