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A weekly round-up of news and events from the sector, straight to your inbox - just sign-up for free
Content
(1) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
(2) Grants for older people's groups
(3) Community NI goes west
(4) INCORE Summer School
(5) Funding for cross-border activities
(6) Physical and sensory disability workshops
(7) National Training Awards 2006
(8) Action for a just world
(9) New Perspectives
(10) Check out the birds
(11) Working effectively with trauma
(12) Discussing the war on terror
(13) Difficult Cities - Techniques of Engagement
(14) The 'real' State of the Sector quiz
Pick of the Websites
Make Your Move - new jobs this week on communityni.org
Community NI Diary
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We’ve seen the bad and got up close to the ugly but what does good policy look like? This seminar will discuss outcomes, targets, aims, visions, strategies, resources and all those other things we know should be in good policy and ask - what should we look for when we are analysing policy and how do we know if what is there will have any impact? The event takes place at NICVA from 10.30am to 12.30pm on Friday 24 February 2006.
For more information on the Everything you ever wanted to know about policy but were afraid to ask series, visit www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/article/page/PolicyLobby.
NICVA has announced a new small grants scheme for organisations working with older people. It is seeking applications to its SJI Turkington Bequest for projects that aim to reduce older people’s isolation and loneliness through educational provision.
Launching the scheme, Paula Reynolds, director of member services, said: “The scheme is open to small groups which could use a grant of up to £500 for work with older people. We know that for many groups a small grant can make a huge difference and are looking forward to seeing the ideas people have for using education to tackle isolation and loneliness among people over 60.
“Groups don’t have to apply for the full amount; they may need less just to purchase an item of equipment, for training or printing costs for example. We would expect to make a total of around 20-30 grants as the overall budget is very modest but this still gives plenty of opportunity.”
NICVA’s funding advice service is able to give guidance to potential applicants and to funding advisers and development workers helping or encouraging others to make applications to the scheme.
“We have tried to make this scheme easy to apply for,” said Neil Irwin of the funding advice service. “An example of this is the sample form and step by step guidelines included in the application pack. These packs can be downloaded from the Grant Tracker website or copies can be requested from NICVA.”
“We are also giving applicants until 16 March 2006 to apply. This should be plenty of time to get the word out about the scheme and not put time pressures on those interested in applying.”
For more information or an application pack contact NICVA on tel: 028 9087 7777, email: turkingtonbequest@nicva.org,or visit www.grant-tracker.org.
Community NI’s outreach officer Brendan Kane is visiting St Columb's Park House, Derry, at 11.00am on 24 February 2006 to introduce the Community NI website to groups form the North West and explain how local organisations can benefit from this online resource.
Facilitators will demonstrate the benefits of the website and explain how non profit organisations can use and contribute to it. There will also be a presentation of the Grant Tracker website. The BBC's Big Yellow Bus will also be on site for you to explore and try out.
What is Community NI?
Community NI aims to be the definitive guide to who’s who and what’s what in the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland. It features news, jobs, events, campaigns, galleries, debates, online guides and Sectornet - a searchable database of organisations.
Who can use it?
The site will be of practical use to anyone with an interest in the voluntary sector, from groups and individuals to researchers, policymakers and anyone wanting to know about the sector. Groups can post information about their campaigns, facilities, jobs and events.
Contact Brendan Kane for more information or to register on tel: 028 9087 7777, email: brendan.kane@nicva.org.
INCORE’s Summer School at Magee Campus, Derry provides a structured learning opportunity to analyse the dynamic and constantly changing field of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Focusing on the latest research and concepts in specific topics of conflict resolution, participants are invited to compare, contrast and learn from different perspectives.
The School offers a unique opportunity to create links between theory, practice and policy. Special attention is given to how the experience and research of both practitioners and academics can impact upon policy makers within the field of conflict resolution.
The 2006 International Summer School will run from 12 to 16 June 2006. Three courses will be offered:
- The Management of Peace Processes
- Evaluation and Impact Assessment of Peacebuilding Programmes
- Reconciliation
Detailed information, including online application details, is available from www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/courses/ss/.
Co-operation Ireland's Exchanges Programme's next funding meeting for community and youth groups wishing to take part in cross-border exchanges is scheduled for Wednesday 1 March 2006. The full 2006 budget for youth projects will be allocated at this meeting. Community groups will have a further three funding meetings during 2006.
The deadline for receipt of funding applications for the next meeting is 3.00pm on Friday 17 February 2006. Visit www.cooperationireland.orgfor details or Exchanges team: on tel: 028 9089 1009, email: exchanges@cooperationireland.org.
The Disability and Mental Health Unit of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, is working in partnership with voluntary and statutory organisations to identify the issues affecting both adults and children with a physical and/or sensory disability when accessing health and social care services. It is keen to identify areas of best practice as well as those where improvements are necessary.
As part of this process, the Department is hosting a series of workshops where both people who use the services and those who provide them, will have an opportunity to express their views in relation to both current and future service provision. It is important that as many people as possible participate in this process in order to ensure that the feedback from the events properly reflects the situation as it will play a vital role in influencing future service delivery.
Workshop dates and venues are:
13 February 2006 Seagoe Hotel, Upper Church Lane, Portadown
20 February 2006 Killyhevlin Hotel, Dublin Road, Enniskillen
22 February 2006 Canal Court Hotel, Merchant’s Quay, Newry
6 March 2006 Glenavon House Hotel, 52 Drum Road, Cookstown
16 March 2006 Adair Arms Hotel, Ballymoney Road, Ballymena
28 March 2006 City Hotel, Queen’s Quay, Derry City
Please contact Grace Shields on tel: 028 9052 2512, email: grace.shields@dhsspsni.gov.ukbefore Friday 3 February, if you would like to attend.
The National Training Awards are not just about winning an award, but also about proving that your training is worthwhile and that it has helped you or your organisation achieve greater efficiency and productivity, increase your business performance and create a more motivated workforce.
Whether you win an award or not, you can use the National Training Awards evaluation framework to take stock of your training practices and see whether training is really contributing to your organisation. Any organisation can enter, the only requirement is that you are serious about training and development and you are prepared to tell everyone about it.
An information seminar on the National Training Awards will take place on 31 January 2006 at the Ramada Hotel, Belfast. Please register at http://ntani.delni.gov.uk/seminarif you wish to attend.
Alternatively, for further information and an entry pack, please visit www.ntani.gov.ukor freephone 0800 9177337.
The closing date for entries is 28 April 2006.
Come to Glasgow to share your work and experiences with international NGOs, community-based groups, think tanks and academics from around the world at one of the biggest civil society conferences in the world. Acting Together for a Just World, a CIVICUS World Assembly, takes place in Glasgow from 21 to 25 June 2006.
The event will bring together civil society in all its diversity to debate and engage with each other and with governments, businesses and international institutions on how to achieve justice for all. The Glasgow assembly is an opportunity to share and reflect, catalyse and energise, and develop plans for progress.
Download the programme at www.civicus.org/new/media/WorldAssemblyBrochure20060113.pdf. Details will also be available from the website www.civicusassembly.org.
Any queries should be addressed tocivicusassembly@scvo.org.uk.
This Women into Politics international conference takes place on 7 March 2006 at Lagan Valley Island, Lisburn. It offers participants the opportunity to meet some remarkable women from Ireland, the UK and around the world. Workshops will include a session entitled How Not to Speak in Public, facilitated by leading voice coach Margaret McAliskey.
Please direct all queries to Women into Politics on tel: 028 9024 3363, email: admin@womenintopolitics.orgor visitwww.womenintopolitics.org.
For the Big Garden Bird Weekend the RSPB has organised a number of local events to get you twitching, as follows:
28 January 2006 in Botanic Gardens, Belfast
Wild neighbours - Birds in your garden, a talk by Dr Paul Lynas, RSPB, in the Bowling Pavilion, followed by a guided walk led and a viewing of the giant birdfeeder/bat roost and a demonstration of how to do the RSBP survey.
Children's activities by the RSPB including mask making, face painting and games in the East Walk Pavilion.
29 January 2006 at Lagan Watersports Activity Centre, Belfast
Children's activities by the RSPB including mask making, face painting and games.
Starling watch on the Albert Bridge. Thousands upon thousands of starlings roost under the bridges ... ever wondered why? Come along to watch one of the best bird spectacles in Northern Ireland - right here in Belfast.
Contact Stephanie Sim for details, email: Stephanie.Sim@rspb.org.ukor visitwww.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/to download a counting sheet.
A one day workshop organised by Barnardo's Parenting in a divided society project, facilitated by Bríd Keenan and Rosie Burrows. This workshop aims to explore:
- How the nervous system and the body register trauma
- Ways of working to release the energy trapped in the experience
- Skills needed to support oneself and others
The workshop will be of use to people working or living with the experience of trauma who are interested in exploring new ways of working to complement existing skills. The event takes place on 21 March 2005 at 10.00am in Barnardo's, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast.
Contact Rosie Burrows for further information or to register on tel: 028 9067 2366, email: rosie.burrows@barnardos.org.uk.
The Irish Network for Nonviolent Action Training and Education (INNATE) and the Irish School of Ecumenics (ISE) are hosting a presentation and discussion by Tony Kempster on the relevance of Christian thinking on just war to the current ‘war on terror’ at 683 Antrim Road, Belfast, on 24 February 2006.
Tony Kempster is a retired scientist, now a peace activist with wide interests in ethics and peace education and was for many years a steering committee member of the Campaign Against Arms Trade and continues to lecture widely on arms trade matters and militarism.
Please contact Caroline Clarke at ISE on tel: 028 9077 0087, email: reconsec@tcd.ie, if you would like to attend.
Belfast Exposed gallery invites you to this discussion on the relationship between civil society and the built environment. Belfast's slow transition from 'troubled' city to 'lived' city is underway. However, the impact of thirty years of civil conflict continues to be felt as much in the current development of the city as it was during times of strife. Governance structures remain highly centralised and locally unaccountable; the development of civil society is inhibited by persistent sectarianism; and the economic life of the region continues to be distorted by state subvention and paramilitary intervention. These conditions are reflected in the formation of the built environment, where large state and corporate actors dominate development, where security mindsets produce fragmented spatial arrangements, and where 'cultural clientelism' opposes the integration of urban institutions and resources.
Members of the University of Ulster's advocacy project 'Building Initiative' will discuss their ideas for developing a series of governance, design, cultural, and procurement proposals that range in scale and scope, with the aim of opening up paths of initiative for civil enterprise to reclaim its pivotal role in shaping the city.
The event takes place at Belfast Exposed, Donegall Street, Belfast on 25 January 2006. Email: info@belfastexposed.orgfor details or visit www.buildinginitiative.orgto find out more about the project.
Inspired by NICVA’s State of the Sector report, Help the Aged has issued a fun challenge to determine the ‘champion of the sector’ in its charity quiz at 7.30pm on Thursday 9 February 2006 in the WellingtonPark Hotel, Belfast.
All you have to have to do is get a group of friends or colleagues together and registerby callingJoleen, Joanne or BridgeenatHelp the Agedon tel: 028 9023 0666.Prizes will be on offer for the brainiest teams and a raffle will ensure everyone can get lucky. All proceeds will be donated to Help the Aged’s Trek India Fund.
Find out more at www.justgiving.com/bridgeenJoleen.
Community NI
Plans for mobile cancer service move forward. Action Cancer reveals plans fora14 metre articulated unit which will visit200 locations a year in NI.
http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/190106BigBus
New carers' strategy welcomed. CAUSE for Mental Health welcome a strategy to support carers and give them equalopportunities
http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/D89D7FE1-1143-D8AC-6BA59BFC16A00C69
£500,000 boost for voluntary advice servicesto develop local networks, extend opening hours and make better use of technology.
http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/190106AdvServ
NICVA
Grants for older people's groups– SJI Turkington Bequest
http://www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/200106Turkington
Guidance on governance and charity law- answers to your most frequently asked questions
http://www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/article/page/CharityAdviceService
Thinking about tax effective giving?Find out how to set up a scheme at your employment
http://www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/article/page/TaxEffective
This section contains a random selection of the latest jobs from the Community NIwebsite.
Development Manager at Tinderbox Theatre Company
Salary: £25,625
http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/jobs/key/160106DevMgr
Project Worker at NI Assoc for Mental Health
Salary: £13,500 - £17,714
http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/jobs/key/D8E1F6DE-1143-D8AC-6BBEB2A5C086DED3
Education Project Worker at Glencree Centre for Reconciliation
Salary:€25,000
http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/jobs/key/160106DevMgr
Development Consultant at Belvoir Players
Salary:NJC scale 6, pts 26 - 28, negotiable
http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/jobs/key/230106DecConsult
NICVA’s successful Community Diary now has a new home on the Community NI web portal.
Submit details of your upcoming events in Community NI’s Events Calendar at www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/events .
Simply follow the Submit an Event link to the right of the page, enter the details, and we’ll do the rest.
NICVA membership is open to all voluntary and community organisations in Northern Ireland.
To find out more contact Frances McAtamney on tel: 028 9087 7777, email: frances.mcatamney@nicva.org or visit the website www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/article/page/NICVAmembership.
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