Where we work

SHEP is an Irish organisation and we work in Ireland. Most of our work is in Cork, Kerry and the Mid-West. We now also work in some other counties, on a small scale, usually in partnership with locally-based groups and agencies.

SHEP also supports the work of our international partner, Sahakarmi Samaj, which works in southwest Nepal. This ‘Learning partnership’ links our work here in Ireland with an innovative and highly effective community mobilisation and support programme in Nepal.

The Project started in Cork in 1974 as an initiative of Ogra Chorcai and later became independent. The Project has been offering training in County Kerry since 1998, and the Project has grown considerably there over the years. A third phase of the programme in the Mid-West Region commenced in 2010: this programme has grown significantly in the region with the support of local partners. The Management Committee agreed in 2018 that we should continue to allow the Programme to grow incrementally and organically to new counties as new needs emerge.

New On-line Programmes

Our preference for training is ‘in-person’ training. However, the experience of COVID19 has shown us that some of our training can be offered in a blended or perhaps even fully on-line format. One of the advantages of this move has been that we have been able to include participants from a much wider geographic area across Ireland.

Milestones

1974: Establishment of Social & Health Education Programme (in Cork)

1998: Training commences in Kerry

2010: Mid West Training programme commences with the support of a number of local organisations and agencies.

2014: Training offered for the first time in Waterford

2018: Training offered for the first time in Tipperary & Killkenny

2019: Training organised for the first time in Dublin

2020: Training offered for the first time in Clare

2020: Online courses (introduced because of COVID19) significantly extend the reach of our programmes.