The WEA is the lead partner for a Community Integration programme under the NE Peace III Programme which began in June. This programme will work with 60 community groups in the cluster area to support them to address sectarianism and/or racism at grassroots level.

Programme Aim

- to deliver a bespoke Community and Ethnic Minority Capacity Building and Sharing Programme which will ultimately increase the confidence, capacity, knowledge and skills of local people, from disadvantaged areas, from within marginalised groups and from ethnic minority groups, to engage in reconciliation, anti-sectarian and anti-racism work.

Delivery Consortium

The WEA is the lead partner and the point of contact for general information. Mediation Northern Ireland and the Interaction Institute for Social Change are involved in the delivery of both contracts.

These are also 3 local partners:

Kilcranny House and Ballymoney Community Resource Centre for contract 4b1 covering Limavady, Coleraine, Moyle and Ballymoney council areas

Ballymena Inter Ethnic Forum for contract 4b2 covering Ballymena and Larne council areas.

Recruitment

Recruitment is the responsibility of the local partners. If you have not already expressed interest in the programme through involvement in Programme 4a, please contact one of the local partners as soon as possible. N.B. as of July recruitment is almost complete, but interest from groups in the Moyle and Limavady areas is still sought

Kilcranny House – 7032 1816

Ballymoney Community Resource Centre – 2766 9559

Ballymena Inter Ethnic Forum – 2564 8822

The Programme

All groups joining the programme must agree to commit to a mentoring programme involving at least 6 sessions and also to send at least three participants on an accredited level 2 course lasting 20 hours. The course delivery can be negotiated with groups and could be delivered intensively over a few days or spread over a number of evenings.

There is a Resource Allocation in the Programme of £2000 per participating group. This allocation is to support local projects that advance the aims of the programme in terms of improving integration through building greater understanding and reconciliation and tackling sectarianism and racism. It is hoped that projects might start in the autumn.

There will be 2 Cross-Border Events and 4 Themed Away Days that will further explore the programme’s core themes. Details of all these events have not been finalised as yet other than one of the cross-border trips will be to Co. Donegal and the other to one of the southern Border counties, and the first Themed Away Day will be on 6^th July and will be a trip to Belfast to visit a number of cultural centres e.g. the Indian Community Centre, the Belfast Islamic Centre and/or the Synagogue.

The programme will also organise 2 Round Table discussions and a conference that will reach out to engage other stakeholders in the NE Cluster area to focus on a vision for community integration and the identification of actions that should be undertaken. These events will facilitate positive exchange between grassroots activists, representatives of different ethnic groupings and key decision makers at local and regional levels.

The whole programme is supported by AVEC Solutions who will develop a programme website, within which each participating group will have its own page. Participants will be trained in digital photography and how to upload images and text to their part of the website. AVEC will also make a number of short videos illustrative of the work of the participating groups that will also be accessible on the site. In this way there will be a unique record of the programme and through the sharing made possible on the site, groups will not only be able to learn from one another but share their learning more widely too.

 For information on the participating groups and their Resource Allocation projects go to