Wednesday 23 March 2011
Social Investment Fund announced
Executive Information Service
22 March 2011
Social Investment Fund announced
The Executive has today agreed the establishment of an £80million Social Investment Fund aimed at reducing poverty and unemployment.
The Fund will be an integrated approach to enhance economic growth, employability and the sustainability of communities.
First Minister Peter D. Robinson said: “Despite the significant progress made in the last number of years towards prosperity, stability and peace there remains sections of the community that have not fully benefited from these changes. Given the current economic and fiscal situation there is a real risk that deprivation will continue, and may increase unless interventions are put in place.
“The Social Investment Fund will redress this imbalance by building pathways to employment, ending dereliction, increasing community services and tackling the systemic issues linked to deprivation. Tackling these issues will require interventions of significant scale to be delivered in partnership with communities on a cross departmental basis. The Fund will reduce poverty, unemployment and physical deterioration.
“The Fund also recognises that deprivation occurs across a number of areas. We have therefore identified eight possible Investment zones upon which we will seek to consult widely.”
Mr McGuinness said: “The most immediate and effective way out of deprivation is through quality employment. However, there are substantial structural, historic, geographical and social barriers to employment and full participation in the economy for deprived communities.
“It is recognised that to have a long term impact on issues of economic and social disadvantage government responses need to break from a silo approach, where responses operate independently of each other and replace this with an interdisciplinary approach coordinated across all government departments by OFMDFM.
“Experience of initiatives such as the West Belfast and Shankill Taskforce, Community Empowerment Programme, Areas at Risk Programme and Neighbourhood Renewal, and the Rural Poverty and Social Exclusion Fund demonstrate the way to tackle these persistent patterns of deprivation is through area based planning and of a scale to make a significant change in the socio economic standing of a community.”
OFMDFM intend to publish the Fund Proposal for consultation shortly.
Notes to editors:
Media enquiries to OFMDFM Press Office on 028 9037 8142. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Office via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.
North Belfast Interface Network
22 March 2011
Social Investment Fund announced
The Executive has today agreed the establishment of an £80million Social Investment Fund aimed at reducing poverty and unemployment.
The Fund will be an integrated approach to enhance economic growth, employability and the sustainability of communities.
First Minister Peter D. Robinson said: “Despite the significant progress made in the last number of years towards prosperity, stability and peace there remains sections of the community that have not fully benefited from these changes. Given the current economic and fiscal situation there is a real risk that deprivation will continue, and may increase unless interventions are put in place.
“The Social Investment Fund will redress this imbalance by building pathways to employment, ending dereliction, increasing community services and tackling the systemic issues linked to deprivation. Tackling these issues will require interventions of significant scale to be delivered in partnership with communities on a cross departmental basis. The Fund will reduce poverty, unemployment and physical deterioration.
“The Fund also recognises that deprivation occurs across a number of areas. We have therefore identified eight possible Investment zones upon which we will seek to consult widely.”
Mr McGuinness said: “The most immediate and effective way out of deprivation is through quality employment. However, there are substantial structural, historic, geographical and social barriers to employment and full participation in the economy for deprived communities.
“It is recognised that to have a long term impact on issues of economic and social disadvantage government responses need to break from a silo approach, where responses operate independently of each other and replace this with an interdisciplinary approach coordinated across all government departments by OFMDFM.
“Experience of initiatives such as the West Belfast and Shankill Taskforce, Community Empowerment Programme, Areas at Risk Programme and Neighbourhood Renewal, and the Rural Poverty and Social Exclusion Fund demonstrate the way to tackle these persistent patterns of deprivation is through area based planning and of a scale to make a significant change in the socio economic standing of a community.”
OFMDFM intend to publish the Fund Proposal for consultation shortly.
Notes to editors:
Media enquiries to OFMDFM Press Office on 028 9037 8142. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Office via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.
North Belfast Interface Network
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Let's Move On
Last July I was asked to co chair a public meeting organised by CARA to discuss the twelfth parades past Ardoyne. The meeting was frank and sometimes fraught with tension and disagreement, but people were honest and expressed heartfelt sentiments. Being co chair I was unable to contribute to the discussion and in a way that enabled me to listen and reflect, more than I normally would, on what was being said rather than making sure that I got the opportunity to get my opinion across.
What struck me was the degree to which many of those present, in most cases confident, articulate and forward thinking people, elevate the Orange Order and give it a significance to which it is no longer worthy.
Gone are the days of, Where We Walk, We Rule. In its place are eleven bar one requests forms, submissions and negotiations. Not a perfect system or even a fair one, but a system that none the less places the Orange Order on the same footing as me and anyone else who is opposed to parades taking place where they are not wanted.
There is no longer an Orange supremacy or ascendancy. I will no longer be treated as a second class citizen, whether the Orange Order marches past Ardoyne on the 12th or not.
What attachments there are to the Orders in many working class loyalist communities is fed as much, if not more so, by Nationalist /Republican resistance to an outdated notion of the power of the Orange orders as by the values associated with ‘the brethern’.
Without our resistance to the Orange Order what is left but an archaic tiger rendered toothless and represented by costumed men in quaint bowler hats. We may not like what we view as triumphalist coat trailing but what if we were to view this as what it really is - the last gasping breath of times gone by. Without the oxygen of our ‘being offended’ the fuel for those who wish to assert their authority over us is denied.
If we agree that the Orange Order is not worth the effort of our resistance then it is not.
Threats of violence or potential violence not only detract from what should be the key issue, Orange Parades, but it also allows many of the less progressive elements of Loyalism to don their yellow bibs and transform themselves into the peoples protectors and guardians of their culture, at least until they get past Ardoyne, Duncairn Gdns or Springfield Rd. Their credibility is firmly tied into our behaviour. We give a lifeline to those within Loyalism who are coming under pressure from within their own communities because of their links with criminal behaviour and gangsterism
Imagine the Crumlin Rd with people shopping oblivious to the marching bands, who holds the power?
The future, whatever it is, will be defined by those who are forward thinking and who seek new ways to deal with old problems. Reverting to old outdated thinking keeps us firmly grounded in the past and unable to move forward.
North Belfast Interface Network
What struck me was the degree to which many of those present, in most cases confident, articulate and forward thinking people, elevate the Orange Order and give it a significance to which it is no longer worthy.
Gone are the days of, Where We Walk, We Rule. In its place are eleven bar one requests forms, submissions and negotiations. Not a perfect system or even a fair one, but a system that none the less places the Orange Order on the same footing as me and anyone else who is opposed to parades taking place where they are not wanted.
There is no longer an Orange supremacy or ascendancy. I will no longer be treated as a second class citizen, whether the Orange Order marches past Ardoyne on the 12th or not.
What attachments there are to the Orders in many working class loyalist communities is fed as much, if not more so, by Nationalist /Republican resistance to an outdated notion of the power of the Orange orders as by the values associated with ‘the brethern’.
Without our resistance to the Orange Order what is left but an archaic tiger rendered toothless and represented by costumed men in quaint bowler hats. We may not like what we view as triumphalist coat trailing but what if we were to view this as what it really is - the last gasping breath of times gone by. Without the oxygen of our ‘being offended’ the fuel for those who wish to assert their authority over us is denied.
If we agree that the Orange Order is not worth the effort of our resistance then it is not.
Threats of violence or potential violence not only detract from what should be the key issue, Orange Parades, but it also allows many of the less progressive elements of Loyalism to don their yellow bibs and transform themselves into the peoples protectors and guardians of their culture, at least until they get past Ardoyne, Duncairn Gdns or Springfield Rd. Their credibility is firmly tied into our behaviour. We give a lifeline to those within Loyalism who are coming under pressure from within their own communities because of their links with criminal behaviour and gangsterism
Imagine the Crumlin Rd with people shopping oblivious to the marching bands, who holds the power?
The future, whatever it is, will be defined by those who are forward thinking and who seek new ways to deal with old problems. Reverting to old outdated thinking keeps us firmly grounded in the past and unable to move forward.
North Belfast Interface Network
Not long now before the start of the marching season and already people are beginning to talk about how they will handle the ‘riots’ on the 12th, not how they hope to resolve the parading issue and find a long term solution to the problem of contentious parades and the problems associated with them
North Belfast Interface Network
North Belfast Interface Network
Tuesday 1 March 2011
To mark the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day, NBIN & NBCDTG will host an electoral identification clinic. The event has been organised by Kate Clarke of the North Belfast Interface Network & Leanne Marshall of the North Belfast Community Development & Transition Group.
Kate Clarke states “ With elections coming up on the 5th of May, women have often been disenfranchised from their vote because they don’t have the correct identification, this event marking the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day will provide women with an official photo id issued by the NI Electoral Office. This is a cross community event, Women have an important voice and having the right identification to vote will be part of making that voice heard.”
Free of Charge the electoral office will take your photo and provide you with photographic identification which will allow you to vote in the upcoming elections.
The event is open to everyone but has a specific focus on women voters particularly young women who will be eligible for their first vote as well as senior women who may have lost out on previous votes because they do not have the correct identification.
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