By John McCormick from NICVA
Published on 30 Apr 2007
Positive Steps, climate change, money for the sector and a new NICVA training programme are all on this month's agenda
This month's round up
What positive steps? This seems to be the question posed by voluntary and community representatives following a recent NICVA survey on the delivery of the recommendations in the Positive Steps report. Apart from one or two iniatives, it would appear that optimism about future benefits is fizzling out. Things will need to move more quickly to keep the momentum going forward. More positively perhaps, NICVA has submitted its response to the draft Peace III Operational Plan with a hope of less bureaucracy and a small grants programme that encourages local participation.
Having just experienced a fine Easter break, the prospect of more sunshine and less rain sounds pretty appealing, but a new climate change group has warned that these positives could in the long run have more negative impacts such as flooding and water shortages. The Northern Ireland Climate Change Impacts Partnership is bringing together representatives of all sectors to review the impact of climate change in Northern Ireland.
A £400 million windfall could be winging its way to the UK voluntary and community sector. The figure comes from proposals by the Commission for Unclaimed Assets to use money currently lying in dormant bank accounts to support charitable work and help disadvantaged communities. NICVA is in favour of this but is not keen on the commission's other proposal to establish a social investment bank.
Finally, as always, NICVA remains committed to delivering quality training to the sector. With our previous successful training programmes having come to an end, a new look training and consultancy programme has been developed. Check out the training section to see what's in store.
This page has been viewed 6253 times since it was published.