County Down Rural Community Network
Helping Communities Help ThemselvesWelcome to CDRCN. The network is a voluntary umbrella body set up and managed by community groups in County Down. We are committed to an inclusive future where all citizens actively participate in local life, helping each other to create a healthy, peaceful, vibrant & sustainable society.
News & Events
Training, Events, Funding and more
Stormont Visit for Louth and Ards Women’s Network
December might have been a month of severe weather conditions with snow and ice seeing many people housebound, but it didn’t deter two groups of women from the Ards Peninsula and Louth from getting together and visiting Stormont and Belfast City Hall. The women’s...
Are Churches Central to the Community?
Maxwell’s Courtyard, Kircubbin was the venue for the launch of a major research report which seeks to explore the relations between churches in the Ards Peninsula and the role they can play individually and collective in local communities. The research was fully...
‘Women Together’ Louth & Ards Women’s Network
In an ongoing series of meetings this group spent a week-end together in Dublin in September as part of their “Building Bridges” project. The two groups met up in Dundalk and travelled on to Glasnevin, Dublin where they had lunch and a tour of the National Botanic...
Portavogie Receives a Visit from a Southern Minister
Eamon O’Cuiv Minister of Social Protection of the Government of Ireland paid a recent visit to Portavogie to meet with community group representatives. The Minister was the guest of Portavogie Culture & Heritage group, who along with the Monreagh Centre in Co...
Rural Community Development
Building & maintaining community infrastructure and developing community capacity
Rural Community Development
We provide a comprehensive community development service to member groups helping to improve their quality of life.
Health Development
Local communities benefit from our dedicated Community Health Development Teams across Down District and the Ards Peninsula.
Neighbourhood Renewal
We deliver a range of targeted health and wellbeing and community initiatives to hard to reach groups within Downpatrick NR area.
Social Prescribing
A community approach to health and wellbeing
What is Social Prescribing?
- The provision of non-medical services in the voluntary and community sector
- The creation and maintenance of referral processes and pathways that enable GPs and other health practitioners to make referrals into such services for individual patients
- Social prescribing takes a community approach to health and wellbeing rather than looking for a pill to cure all ills.
What is SPRING?
“SPRING” social prescribing helps people 18+ to address social, emotional and practical needs by connecting them to sources of support within their community to improve their own health and wellbeing.
SPRING is a brand new National Lottery funded Social Prescribing project organised by the Healthy Living Centre Alliance (HLCA) & Scottish Communities for Health and Wellbeing. It has been funded for 3 years initially with extension to 5 depending on outcomes.
Ballymote Centre
For community and business
CDRCN has managed the Ballymote Centre for over 18 years under a management agreement with the Ballymote Board of Directors. Ballymote Community Project Ltd (BCPL) is one of the most successful social economy projects in Northern Ireland.
Contact CDRCN
Main Office
Ballymote Centre
40 Killough Road
Downpatrick
BT30 6PY
T: 028 4461 2311
Ards Office
Ards Network Centre
43-45 Frances Street
Newtownards
BT23 7DX
T: 028 9182 8884
South Down Office
Altnaveigh House
51 Downshire Road
Newry
BT34 1EE
T: 028 4461 2311
South Armagh Office
Crossmaglen Community Centre
Cardinal O’fiaich Square
Crossmaglen
BT35 9AA
T: 028 4461 2311
CDRCN is funded by
