eNews 14 Mar 2005

Compiled by John McCormick, NICVA Information Officer

1. Do you Know your Ps from your Qs?
2. Will the poor always be with us?
3. Neighbourhood Renewal Seminars
4. Northern Ireland Community Builders Programme 2005
5. Responding to Consultations - Omagh
6. European week against racism
7. Funding for children and young people’s projects
8. 'Get Active’ Cash Grant
9. Waste Management Project Grants
10. Sign up for a smoke free Northern Ireland
11. Have your say on planning reform
12. Festival of Fools
13. Counselling Skills for Helpline Workers
14. Solicitors Journal offers advertising space to charities
15. Networking and Information Evening
16. Equipment donations
17. Highlights from the website
18. Make Your Move – new jobs this week
19. Community Diary
20. Membership
21. Subscribe to eNews
22. Feedback

1. Do you Know your Ps from your Qs?
If you want to get your voice heard about issues that concern you, if you want to effect change but you’re not sure how to go about it, then this course, Know your Ps from your Qs, is for you.

Starting this spring, NICVA is offering a series of lobbying courses. The purpose is to provide organisations with information, detailed practical guidance and a range of techniques to help influence decision-making.

Participants will gain an understanding of government structures at the Stormont and Westminster levels; useful tips on who to lobby; insight into tools including parliamentary questions (PQs); and the opportunity to start working on your own lobbying strategies with advice from a politician or experienced lobbyist.

Contact Geraldine Keys at FOCUS on tel: 028 8224 0991 if you would like to attend the session in Omagh on 18 May 2005 or contact Kathleen McCaul at Confederation of Community Groups on tel: 028 3026 1022 for the session in Newry on 16 June 2005. The first session at NICVA on 23 March 2005 is already oversubscribed.

Fo further details contact Teresa Flanagan on tel:028 9087 7777, email: teresa.flanagan@nicva.org or download the programme from http://www.nicva.org/events/diary/article.asp?ArticleID=9942 .

2. Will the poor always be with us?

NICVA’s high-profile conference will contribute to the debate on poverty and mark the Make Poverty History Campaign. Come to the King’s Hall, Belfast on 8 April 2005 and find out:

If governments can eradicate poverty.

What ideas and policies have had the biggest real impact in reducing poverty.

If there are other countries that do better in terms of the gap between rich and poor.

If a more socially cohesive society is an advantage or not.

Whether global poverty can be eradicated or merely mitigated.

What the responsibilities of richer countries are to developing countries and how actions at home are balanced with wider responsibilities?

Download the programme today at http://www.nicva.org/article.asp?ArticleID=9856 to make sure you don’t miss out.

3. Neighbourhood Renewal Seminars
NICVA and DSD will be holding a series of seminars in April to examine the progress of the Neighbourhood Renewal initiative.

The purpose of the seminars is to provide an opportunity for discussion and debate — to look at what Neighbourhood Renewal is, to take stock of how the initiative is progressing in different places and to examine the structures that are being established to support and take Neighbourhood Renewal forward in different places.

There will be three seminars looking at the initiative, one in Belfast, one in Derry/Londonderry and one regional.

Dates and venues are:

Regional seminar - 18 April 2005 at 10.00am in the Rural College, Draperstown

Belfast - 22 April 2005 at 11.00am in NICVA, 61 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast

Derry- 25 April 2005 at 10.00am in The Junction, 8 Bishop Street, Derry

If you would like to register for any of the seminars please contact Teresa Flanagan on tel: 028 9087 7777, email: teresa.flanagan@nicva.org or visit http://www.nicva.org/news/article.asp?ArticleID=9951 .

4. Northern Ireland Community Builders Programme 2005
The Northern Ireland Community Builders Programme is aimed at locally-based community organisations and individuals committed to building peace and stability in their communities. Recruiting is now under way for the 2005 Programme in New York.

The programme is designed to provide a stimulating learning experience that combines a period of study at Columbia University and hands on practice in a relevant placement in New York City. This learning programme will allow practical exposure to issues at the centre of civic society such as community development and community relations, gender and ethnic diversity and inter-sectoral co-operation through partnerships, with a view to building a greater understanding of the role that each has to play in building a more peaceful society.

For a full information package please contact Stafford Reynolds for Northern Ireland Community Builders Programme on tel: 0780 294 0407, email: nicbprogramme@btinternet.com

Deadline for applications is 3.00pm on Thursday 7 April 2005.

5. Responding to Consultations - Omagh
A last minute reminder to return your applications for NICVA’s training in how to respond to consultations, which takes place in Omagh Community House on 7 April 2005 from 10.00am to 4.30pm.

The training is in partnership with the Consultation Institute and will help you to respond more effectively to public consultations. There will be an opportunity to discuss and share best practice.

Applications need to be received by 24 March 2005, so please contact Roisin Kelly by email to: roisin.kelly@nicva.org or tel: 028 9087 7777.

6. European week against racism
Belfast Islamic Centre, as part of the European Week Against Racism (14 to 21 March 2005), invites you to attend its seminars entitled Islam and Christianity and Islam the solution to racism on 16 March 2005 at 1.00pm and 7.00pm in the Peter Froggatt Centre, Queen’s University, Belfast.

For more information please contact Belfast Islamic centre on tel: 028 9066 4465, email: info@belfastislamiccentre.org.uk or visit www.belfastislamiccentre.org.uk .

The European Week Against Racism ends on 21 March which is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It commemorates the victims of the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960, in which 69 peaceful demonstrators against apartheid were killed by South African police forces.

As part of the week the Equality Commission is asking employers throughout Northern Ireland to show their opposition to racism by displaying a poster and distributing postcards themed ‘Racism is illegal – You have rights’.

Contact Una O’Kane at the Equality Commission on email: uokane@equalityni.org .

Check out NICVA’s community diary for more event information at www.nicva.org/events/diary/index.asp .

7. Funding for children and young people’s projects
The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland’s (CFNI) Social Justice Initiatives Fund is a programme offering small grants of up to £5,000 over a two year period. The fund aims to encourage discussion, reflection and then action by voluntary and community groups working in Northern Ireland and/or the six southern border counties of Donegal, Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, Louth and Sligo.

One of the four theme areas, funded by Save the Children, encourages project proposals which involve children and young people in active decision making around community planning. This is a real opportunity to develop or initiate new ways of working in partnership with children and young people, to generate or realise the ideas young people have, to make a positive impact on community life, and to address issues jointly identified by young people and adults within communities.

Examples of the type of proposal Save the Children is encouraging might include:

• The development of a joint planning forum in which children are supported to become equal partners in community strategies for regeneration.

• The development of shared strategies and initiatives around community safety, road safety, the environment, play provision, training etc.

• Children and adults working together to improve access and inclusion in community life or resources for marginalised groups.

For an application pack contact Cormac McAleer at CFNI on tel: 028 9024 5927

For further information or resources concerning partnership work with children and young people contact

Peter Bryson at Save the Children on tel: 028 9043 1123, email: p.bryson@savethechildren.org.uk .

8. ‘Get Active’ Cash Grant
Application forms for the Health Promotion Agency’s Get Active in the Community Cash Grant Awards are now available on the organisation’s website. This initiative is funded by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety and has been developed by the Health Promotion Agency in support of the Northern Ireland Physical Activity Strategy.

The scheme enables local groups to provide physical activity opportunities in their communities and raises awareness of the importance and benefits of being regularly, moderately physically active.

Telephone 0845 601 2277 to apply for a cash grant of up to £500 or visit www.healthpromotionagency.org.uk to download an application form.

9. Waste Management Project Grants
The Environment and Heritage Service, an agency of the Department of Environment in Northern Ireland, has launched the Community Waste Innovation Fund.

It is aimed at voluntary and community organisations and will assist them financially in order to carry out sustainable waste management projects that contribute to the Northern Ireland Waste Management Strategy.

The maximum grant available is £150,000 per year for up to three years. This fund can be used to access up to 75% of the cost of a project.

Applications to the scheme will close on 31 March 2005.

Full details are available on the website www.ehsni.gov.uk or by phoning 028 9054 6690.

10. Sign up for a smoke free Northern Ireland
Exposure to passive smoking in the workplace causes about 700 deaths each year across the UK, including the death of one hospitality worker per week. This is three times the number of people killed in all industrial accidents in the UK. A study in Scotland has found that smoking-related absenteeism costs employers there more than £33 million a year.

The Department of Health, Social Sevice and Public Safety is currently consulting on the future of smoking in the workplace in Northern Ireland. This is a real opportunity to have your say and to make a difference to the future health of thousands of people across Northern Ireland. Visit www.smokefreenorthernireland.com

and vote in a matter of seconds for smoke free workplaces.

11. Have your say on planning reform
Government is intending to erode the rights of citizens in the planning process by removing existing rights and failing to grant rights enjoyed by the citizens of England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

Make sure your organisation's voice is heard by signing up to a statement calling for three simple measures to halt the erosion of our rights and improve the public's confidence in the Northern Ireland Planning System.

The Rights in Planning Group (Community Technical Aid, Friends of the Earth, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Ulster WildlifeTrust) has drafted a statement to be presented to the Minister. NICVA supports the group's statement.

Please lend your support and sign up at http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/forms/rights_up_your_street.pdf .

For further information contact Colette Webster on tel: 028 9023 3488 or email: colettew@foe.co.uk .

12. Festival Of Fools
The Belfast Community Circus School is planning a five day Festival of Fools, when Belfast city centre will come alive to the sound of laughter, as some of the very best performers from around the world take to the streets of Belfast. This is a hugely popular festival that can be enjoyed by all the family and we would love you to be a part of it.

Are you free to volunteer any day at any time between 29 April and 2 May 2005?

Volunteers will receive travel expenses, meal vouchers and if you volunteer for more than one day you will get a funky ‘Festival Of Fools’ T-shirt, baseball hat and a VIP invitation to the end of festival party.

For more information contact Carol or Will on tel: 028 9023 6007.

13. Counselling Skills for Helpline Workers
Telephone Helplines Association is running this course to build on the skills from the Core and Advanced Helpline courses. It gives the opportunity for participants to explore, in greater depth, the types of counselling skills that can be utilised in a helpline setting. The course style is experiential and emphasises shared learning by drawing on individual participants’ skills and knowledge.

This course is suitable for participants who have already attended both the Core and the Advanced Helpline Skills courses. It will be of particular relevance to helplines that offer listening, befriending and emotional support. Places on this course are strictly limited, please book early to secure a place.

By the end of the course participants will be able to recognise the difference between being a counsellor and using counselling skills, use a variety of active listening techniques and respond with empathy to the caller.

The course takes place in Belfast on 31 March 2005 from 10.30am to 4.30pm.

Contact Graeme Caul at THA for more information, email: graeme.caul@helplines.org.uk .

14. Solicitors Journal offers advertising space to charities
Solicitors Journal is subscribed to by thousands of solicitors across the UK who provide a loyal and committed readership to the weekly edition and supplements accompanying the magazine.

The Charity Appeals Supplement, published twice a year, is circulated to 10,000 solicitor practices in the UK. These include subscribers to the weekly magazine and solicitors who specialise in Wills and Probate.

If you are interested in finding out more, contact James Barraclough on tel: 020 7566 5763

15. Networking and Information Evening
COSTA and Triskele Community Training and Development are holding and information evening on 15 March 2005 at Quinn’s Corner, Dungannon from 7.30. to 8.30pm. It is an opportunity for community organisations to find out about the work of COSTA and Triskele, including Community Development training and support.

For more information contact: Lorraine or Lisa at 028 8555 6880.

16. Equipment donations
Relate NI has five Siemens 15" colour monitors (approx 3 years old and in good condition) to give away. If interested please contact Lynn Davidson on tel: 0870 242 6091 or email: lynn@relateni.org . Organisations would have to arrange collection from Glengall Street in Belfast.

The Princes Trust also has a number of monitors to donate to voluntary or charity organisations. Interested parties should contact Halina on tel: 028 9074 5454.

17. Highlights from the website

A new website in the making…

Financial Exclusion? Men? Carers? Which topics do you feel are missing from our proposed classification system for the new Community NI website?

We need your help to try to get the categories right. To see the proposed themes list, and find out more about the site, go to http://www.nicva.org/news/article.asp?ArticleID=9902 . You can read the comments that have been made so far, and contribute your own thoughts, by scrolling down to the bottom of the article.

18. Make Your Move – new jobs this week
Conference Director for Community Arts Forum

Salary: £26,703

http://www.nicva.org/services/recruitment/JobAdvert.asp?JobID=872

Advice Worker at Limavady Community Development Initiative
http://www.nicva.org/services/recruitment/JobAdvert.asp?JobID=858

Music Class Co-ordinator at Andersonstown Traditional and Contemporary Music School
Salary: £18,450 pa
http://www.nicva.org/services/recruitment/JobAdvert.asp?JobID=863

Youth Officer at centre for Global Education
Salary: £14,000 pa
http://www.nicva.org/services/recruitment/JobAdvert.asp?JobID=859

19 .Community Diary

Have an event to promote? Enter your upcoming events in NICVA's Online Diary: Just follow this link: www.nicva.org/events/diary/index.asp . Click on ‘submit an event’ and enter the details on a simple form. After moderation your event will appear in the diary.

20. Membership
Is your organisation a member of NICVA or do you know of another organisation that would benefit from NICVA membership? Membership is open to all voluntary and community organisations in Northern Ireland.

To find out more about the benefits of NICVA membership, or to obtain a membership pack, please contact Frances McAtamney on tel: 028 9087 7777, email: frances.mcatamney@nicva.org or visit the website www.nicva.org .

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