Sector encouraged to work together for change

Delegates and panelists looked at how best the sector can continue to build stronger and more resilient charitable organisations that have a positive impact for individuals, communities and wider society in Northern Ireland.

Dr Tim London from The Queen’s University Belfast spoke about the need for collaboration in a changing sector and believes the potential benefits of collaboration are tremendous, but warns:

“Getting people to work together in new ways can be quite difficult.

“Ensuring the benefits are attained requires establishing key priorities, helping people learn how to work in collaborative ways and ensuring robust connections between policy, funders and practitioners.”

Attendees heard first-hand accounts about ongoing collaborative work carried out by local organisations, including Opportunity Youth and ASCERT. They outlined the work needed to make working in partnership successful and the challenges they had faced in developing their partnership.

Alex Maskey MLA, Chair of the Committee for Social Development, delivered a keynote speech in which he praised the work of the sector and urged them to look at ways of working together, commenting:

“Working together in partnership is key to the success of collaboration… I also believe that Government must: be wholly committed to genuine partnership with the sector; listen to the sector and develop policies and strategies in collaboration with the Community and Voluntary Sector. 

" We will always find reasons not to work together or argue for the retention of certain groups, schemes or projects but work together we must…At all times with the vision for what we need to achieve, the structures required to deliver on the vision and with clearly defined outcomes set out from the beginning.”

Minister for Social Development, Nelson McCausland MLA joined a panel and audience discussion with Lauri McCusker from the Fermanagh Trust, Dr Tim London and Roisin Foster from Cancer Focus NI.

Chaired by broadcaster William Crawley, an animated discussion took place around collaboration and the significance of joint working in building a more effective sector to promote sustainable charitable organisations, as well as meeting the key service needs of the community at large.

Bill Osborne, Chair of the Building Change Trust said:

 “The voluntary and community sector is leading the agenda for organisational and social change in Northern Ireland.

“Many organisations are working together, collaboratively and strategically, while others are merging or becoming more efficient in the delivery of essential services to the wider community.

“But there is more to do as we seek to affirm the place of the voluntary and community sector in building a better civil society.”

Seamus McAleavey, speaking on behalf of CollaborationNI added,

“This conference will look at what we mean by social change and the importance of collaboration within the sector in this economically challenging time and how we can ensure our work is sustainable.  

“We know the sector wants to work in this way – we were overwhelmed by the number of groups registering for this conference – and they are keen to hear more about the Government’s perspective on social change and consider what future work needs to be carried out to underpin the continued development of the sector and to connect that to the Executives social development priorities.”

Enabling Fund

Bill Osborne also announced the availability of an Enabling Fund by Building Change Trust, which follows consultation with CollaborationNI over the project's experience since it was launched.

The Building Change Trust has decided to allocate, on an initial pilot basis, a portion of its Trust fund towards a new Collaboration Enabling Fund for the Northern Ireland community and voluntary sector. The aim of this Collaboration Enabling Fund is to enable organisations developing and implementing collaborative activity further progress and implement their collaboration plans.

A document giving more details is available for download below.

Read a report on the event and see video of Alex Maskey's keynote address at the Assembly website.