Women working together across country to show the politicians how it should be done

Q Radio News

Women taking part in a ground-breaking cross-community initiative are calling on Stormont politicians to follow their lead, set aside old differences and secure a new Northern Ireland...

500 women from across the province recently graduated from the peace-building programme run by the Department for Communities.

Participants have spoken with Q Radio about the importance of restoring devolution. 

Charlene Anderson from north Belfast says she finds sitting down for open and honest talks is a good place to start to break down traditional barriers...

Rosie Doherty from Derry/Londonderry says local community contact here over the years has been invaluable ...

The women have celebrated successfully completing the first stage of the Women Involved in Community Transformation programme.

The programme which is aimed at increasing the participation and influence of women in community development, was established by the Department for Communities as part of the Executive Action Plan to Tackle Paramilitary Activity, Criminality and Organised Crime.

Over the past six months, the participants have been taking part in a number of training modules, including Leadership and Mentoring, Women in the Justice System; Women in Peace-building; Citizenship and Personal Development and Health/Well-being as part of the programme and took their opportunity to celebrate their achievements at a special black-tie event at Titanic Belfast.

Addressing the participants at the event, Ian Snowden, Deputy Secretary for the Department for Communities, said: “This programme is helping women and the communities where they live to develop a vision for positive change.  It helps women develop the skills to work in their communities, enables them to make new connections with community and voluntary groups and supports them to become involved in positive community activity. It also supports the development of influential relationships for women to build participation in our political structures and grow civic leadership from the neighbourhood level upwards.

“The programme has been a great success. I am certain that the transformational impact we wish to achieve for our communities through the programme will become a reality for all the participants.”

The programme has been delivered in 26 locations across Northern Ireland by the Women’s Intervention Partnership (WIP), a consortium which includes Training for Women Network, Co-operation Ireland, Intercomm and Foyle Women’s Information Network.

Norma Shearer, Chief Executive of The Women’s Network, said: “This programme has been an amazing success with around 500 women from across Northern Ireland completing it.  These women are the future, and in their hands, the future is secure”

The programme is one of 38 commitments within the Executive Action Plan and falls under the theme of “Building Capacity to Support Transition” which recognises the vital role that women can play in helping to move communities away from paramilitarism.

The graduation marked the end of phase one of the programme. The Department for Communities says phase two will run until March 2019 and will consolidate the participants’ learning via five pathways: Social Innovation; Community Leadership programme; Women in Civil Society; Communication and Engagement; Co-design/Bespoke.