NICVA Research Update 38

Index

Recent Research

'Raising Grandparents’ examines the ways in which grandparents support their families, the services they provide, the money they save the state and their own feelings about their role.

Conference and Workshop

Conference workshop and launch of: The Legacy Of The Troubles Project: Experience of the troubles, mental health and social attitudes.

Research Seminars

Reporting civil society: Assessing the media’s view of civil society in Northern Ireland. This seminar examines how the media reports the activities of civil society.

Filling the skills gap: developing a skills strategy for the voluntary and community sector. This seminarwill present the findings of a Task Force on teh Resourcing of teh Voluntary and Community Sector commissioned piece of research into future skills needs in the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland.

Seminars

ARK are holding a series of seminars from October 2005 to May 2006

Parenting in Northern Ireland – Policy and Practice

Driven to Disaffection: Religious Independents in Northern Ireland

The Impact of Integrated Education on Political Attitudes in Northern Ireland

Public Attitudes to the Countryside

Different Generations - Different Views on Community Relations?

Should Northern Ireland Have a Truth Commission?

Publish your own research online

Like to make your research more accessible? Got a research publication to plug or some research news to share? Now is the time to publish your research online. Publish it on community NI, free of charge.

Recent Research

'Raising Grandparents’ examines the ways in which grandparents support their families, the services they provide, the money they save the state and their own feelings about their role. This report is based on data fromthe 2004 Northern Ireland Life and Times survey.

Findings:

• There is a general sense among respondents to the survey that families today need the help of grandparents but that the support grandparents give is undervalued.
• The vast majority (97%) of grandparents said their grandchildren are a very rewarding part of their lives although 40% said they want a life that is free from too many family duties.
• Nevertheless, one fifth of grandparents care for someone who is sick, elderly or disabled while 40% of grandmothers with a grandchild under the age of 12 help with childcare at least once a week, with a quarter helping with babysitting in the evening.
• While grandmothers tend to be the main providers of care for their grandchildren, more grandfathers (50%) than grandmothers (35%) said they had provided monetary support to their child.
• At the other end of the age spectrum, 85% of grandchildren said their grandparents play an important role in their life, although two thirds said they don’tsee as much of their grandparents as they would like.

The full report can be found online: www.ark.ac.uk/publications

Conference and Workshop

Conference workshop and launch on: The Legacy Of The Troubles Project: Experience of the troubles, mental health and social attitudes.

This project, undertaken by The School of Pyschology, Queen's University Belfast (http://www.psych.qub.ac.uk) and The Department of Applied Psychology, University College Cork (http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/apsych) was funded by the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation. It is a unique and ground breaking study of the effects of troubles related experiences on psychological health and social attitudes. The conference will report on the survey of 3,000 adults in Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Republic. It examines direct and indirect experience of the troubles in relation to outcomes such as post-traumatic stress, substance misuse, sympathy for violence and attitudes to other national and religious groups. The focus of the workshop discussion will be the implications of the research for policy provision in Ireland, North and South.

The conference workshop will take place on Tuesday 22 November 2005 at the Armagh City Hotel.

Register as soon as possible but no later than Friday 18^th November 2005. To receive a booking form for this conference please contact:

Alison Jeffrey

School of Psychology

Queen’s University Belfast

David Keir Building

18-30 Malone Road

Belfast BT9 5BP

a.jeffrey@qub.ac.uk

Research Seminars

You are invited to attend research seminars hosted by NICVA.

Reporting civil society: Assessing the media’s view of civil society in Northern Ireland

Main Speaker: Liz Fawcett (Liz Fawcett Consulting)

Date and Time: 13 October 2005 11.00am – 12.30pm

Location: NICVA, 61 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast BT15 2GB

This seminar examines how the media reports the activities of civil society. NICVA commissioned Liz Fawcett Consulting and Democratic Dialogue to undertake this research and on 13 October 2005 Liz Fawcett will go through the results of a two month analysis of various media outputs. This research was part of the CIVICUS Civil Society Index programme.

The second seminar presents the findings of a Task force on the resourcing of the Voluntary and Community Sector commissioned piece of research into future skills needs in the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland.

Filling the skills gap

Main Speaker: Gordon McCullough (NICVA)

Date and Time:11 November 2005 11.00am – 12.30pm

The issue of skills development and training is the topic for the third research seminar on 11 November 2005. Entitled Filling the Skills Gap, Gordon McCullough from NICVA will present the findings of a Task Force on the Resourcing of the Voluntary and Community Sector commissioned piece of research into future skills needs in the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland.

To register for these events please contact Andrea Burke on andrea.burke@nicva.org or 028 9087 7777. To view the rest of the seminars click here

Seminars

2005-2006 SEMINAR SERIES

You are invited to attend the ARK 2005-2006 Seminar Series.

Time: 12:00 - 1:00pm

Followed by lunch 1:00 - 2:00pm

Please contact Art to register for the above seminars.

028 7137 5513, 028 7137 5510 or info@ark.ac.uk

Publish your own research online

Like to make your research more accessible? Got a research publication to plug or some research news to share? Now is the time to publish your research online. Publish it on community NI, free of charge. Follow the simple online form found at Submit New

What is Community NI?

Community NI has been developed by the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) to promote the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland. The website was officially launched in April 2005.

Publish your information

The principle behind the site is that every community and voluntary organisation will be signposted and have the opportunity to publish their information, whether that be a newsletter, press release, job advertisement or event.

Community NI aims to be the first central online source of information about the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland. It gives voluntary and community organisations the chance to promote themselves on the internet and to share their resources and expertise.

Thanks to everyone who sent information that has been included in NICVA Research Update 38. Please remember to send information about research that you have undertaken and requests for information that you would like included in the next update. Also remember to let others know about NICVA Research Updates. To register send an email entitled ‘NICVA Research Updates’ to andrea.burke@nicva.org

Andrea Burke

Research Assistant

NICVA

61 Duncairn Gardens

BELFAST BT15 2GB

028 9087 7777

028 9087 7799

andrea.burke@nicva.org

www.nicva.org