By Enough is Enough campaign from NICVA
Published on 21 Sep 2005
Take part in Enough is Enough campaign activities to end poverty in Northern Ireland.
Only the Minister with responsibility for the strategy, Jeff Rooker, can set the kind of high level targets that are needed to form the foundations of an effective strategy.
Give your support
1. ATTEND THE DEMONSTRATION AT CASTLE BUILDINGS
A total of 206 organisations have signed the open letter to Lord Rooker. Attend the rally at Castle Buildings when the letter will be presented to him.
Thursday 22 September at 11.00am
Castle Buildings, Stormont (use the Stoney Road entrance)
It is vital that as many people from as many organisations as possible attend this event.
Email Updates
To subscribe to email updates for information on the campaign send an email to 
enoughisenough@nicva.org
2. EMAIL JEFF ROOKER
NICVA has requested a meeting with the Jeff Rooker. Send him an email to encourage him to meet with us.
You can notify NICVA that you have taken action by adding enoughisenough@nicva.org to the cc field of your email.
When NICVA requested a meeting with his predecessor during the last consultation, the meeting was blocked. Sending him an email could prevent this happening again.
Ideas to include in your email (26Kb)
3. EMAIL YOUR MP AND MLA
Tell them your concerns, request that they ask a question in Westminster or ask them to publicly support the campaign.
Ideas for your message (32Kb)
Contact details: (1) MPs (2) MLAs (95Kb)
If you are not sure who your MP is, you can look it up at politics.guardian.co.uk/people/browse
4. EMAIL OUR MEPs
Tell Northern Ireland's MEPs that you are concerned that despite its claims, the draft anti-poverty strategy does not follow the European National Action Plan for Social Inclusion.
MEP email addresses:
jallister@europarl.eu.int jnicholson@europarl.eu.int bdebrun@europarl.eu.int
Draft letter you can adapt (32Kb)
5. SEND A PRESS RELEASE
Contact your local paper and tell them about the campaign and your involvement in it.
Draft press release (24Kb)
6. SIGN UP FOR UPDATES
Spread the word and stay involved in the campaign by receiving Enough is Enough email updates. Send an email to enoughisenough@nicva.org
What NICVA will do
- NICVA is talking to journalists and academics to encourage them to run stories about the campaign and poverty in Northern Ireland.
- We will contact the leaders of each political party to tell them the sector's concerns over the strategy.
- The Westminster NI Affairs Committee will visit Northern Ireland in October. NICVA will invite them to meet the sector to discuss the issue.
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THE MORE THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME
Targeting Social Need is at the heart of Government policy in the north of Ireland. Government resources, so it is said, are focused towards the issues of social exclusion, such as unemployment, poor housing, poor health and low educational attainment. TSN is designed to give particular emphasis to addressing problems of employment and employability and recognises the close correlation between unemployment and other forms of social disadvantage, such as poor housing, ill health and educational under performance. It is intended that Government Departments work together with non-departmental public bodies and with partners outside of Government to identify and address factors that cause social exclusion. However, it is particularly difficult to allocate resources in an especially disadvantaged society. Not least because TSN has no spending programme. It is a concept that depends upon available resources and its shift to those in need. Equally TSN is about more than money. It is about targeting efforts and concentrated work on a number of particular issues to ultimately make a permanent difference. Yet there lingers the suspicion that Government Agencies and Departments remain largely unaccountable, inadequate and limited in the broader understanding of matters. Ambiguity, inaction, delay and inconsistency are some of the factors that lend to such a view. Criticism continues that TSN has failed to take root in Government Departments or to make the real impact it has needed to and remains ‘an idea existing in the margins of Government and the minds of a few commitment individuals’. There is also the changing nature of governance angle and the gap between policy demands of Central Government and service delivery of Local Government. Finally, there remains a lack of statutory backing for TSN. TSN is simply not enshrined in law and Ministerial decisions can over-ride it. Thus few Government Departments have actually implemented TSN with any measure of success.
What’s old and what’s new? The confusion remains as does an inadequate strategy to reduce inequality or improve the position of those in our society who live in poverty.
28 Sep 05 @ 15:25