Choices of activity on day 2 afternoon
The Shankill Women’s Centre was formed in 1987 as a locally based group to provide education for women. Based on the Shankill Road, Belfast (Protestant, Unionist, Loyalist area) the centre has flourished and developed to its current position as a key provider for training, health awareness, childcare and young women’s activities in the Greater Shankill and beyond. Shankill Women’s Centre, through its Management Committee and 23 members of staff operate a wide range of projects including:
- Child care
- Cultural diversity
- Education and Training
- Young Women’s Project
- Health awareness
- Outreach work
- Events
Falls Women’s Centre is committed to working to meet the needs of women most excluded in its community and to raising awareness of issues which have an adverse impact on their lives.
The centre is committed to policies and issues relating to gender inequality and has worked extremely hard to demonstrate the value of women only community based education, with childcare provision and to securing the provision of women specific advice, advocacy and counseling services.
As it has done since its formation 25 years ago the centre continues its work for women in areas such as domestic violence, rape and abuse, whilst committing to tackle issues of inequalities such as, unemployment , the need for social and affordable housing, low pay for women, affordable childcare and attainable education.
Footprints Women’s Centre combined with a visit to Suffolk and Lenadoon Interface Group
Footprints Women’s Centre has provided services for women and children within the Colin Neighbourhood since 1991. The Centre has evolved from a strong self-help ethos and operates within a Community Development context.
The Centre is a valuable asset within the community and has developed a diverse range of services that have filled a gap caused by the lack of investment, both private and statutory, in the Colin neighbourhood. The Centre operates as a Social Enterprise with a view to supporting services directly of benefit to women and children. Footprints Daycare facility remains the only provision of its kind within the Colin area and Footprints Trading Ltd has created employment in an area of multiple deprivations.
The Centre works with 400 women per week and up to 90 children, they employ 35 staff. Services offered:
- Drop in and listening ear
- Advice and advocacy
- Health awareness
- 50+ Group
- Volunteering opportunities
- Adult learning
- Children’s services
- Refresh catering services
Suffolk and Lenadoon Interface Group
Lenadoon and Suffolk are neighbouring areas in West Belfast. Suffolk is a small Protestant community within the predominantly Catholic West Belfast, bordered by Lenadoon estate. Relationships between the two communities have been problematic for many years and the Stewartstown Road has been the main interface where most of the outbreaks of violence between young people have taken place. In the last few years there has been some improvements in community relations, mainly due to the efforts of Suffolk Community Forum and Lenadoon Community Forum, working together in Suffolk and Lenadoon Interface Group.
Suffolk and Lenadoon Interface Group began in the late 1990’s as an informal meeting of people from the neighbouring communities of Suffolk and Lenadoon in West Belfast. The objects of the group are to benefit the local area, to promote religious harmony and to promote good citizenship. Long term, the group’s aim is to ensure that both communities can live alongside each other as good neighbours. Given the fractured history of the area it must be accepted that this is a long and difficult process, with deep hurts to be healed on either side and mistrust and/or hatred to be addressed.
Ballybeen Women’s Centre is an integrated service provider committed to enabling women, young people and children to realise their potential and fulfill their aspirations through the promotion of health, personal and socio-economic development.
Ballybeen Women’s Centre has been delivering quality services in an area of low and weak community infrastructure for the past twenty years. Ballybeen Women’s Centre was established to address the needs of women within a community objectively defined as disadvantaged and has developed expertise in the design and delivery of education and training programmes, health promotion programmes, cultural diversity programmes, family and childcare programmes and advice and support. Services offered:
Early Years
Peer Education
Outreach and Support
Education and Training
Women’s Health
EU Projects
Established on 1990, Windsor Women’s Centre has been committed to providing vital services for the diverse needs of women within the local community. Situated in the “village” area of South Belfast, the centre has 23 members of staff with a management committee of 18 with the majority of them coming from the local area.
The centre endeavors to bring services to the areas that are capable of supporting the women in the community towards building a better life for themselves and their families.
Through these various programmes the women can empower themselves to become proactive and vocal members of their community.
The educational and training programmes on offer give the women the opportunity to gain vital skills and qualifications which in turn increases their prospects of gaining meaningful employment.
South Tyrone Empowerment Programme (S.T.E.P.)
S.T.E.P. is a not-for-profit community development and training organisation. S.T.E.P. was originally established in 1997 to identify areas of marginalisation in the South Tyrone area. Since 1997, the services provided by have increased and diversified. At present, S.T.E.P. has five main areas of focus: Training Services; Community Development, Interpreters & Translators; Migrant Support Services and Other Support Services. S.T.E.P. offers a variety of services to Migrants living in the South Tyrone area and beyond. Individual support to Migrant Workers is implemented in S.T.E.P.’s Migrant Support Centres located in Dungannon and Portadown. The centres can be accessed freely by individuals from the Migrant Worker population. Full-time workers in the centre are bilingual and provide the service mainly in Portuguese, Polish and Lithuanian. Other languages (such as Latvian and Russian) are provided by part-time workers. Language support is also offered to Migrant Workers involving both training in English (ESOL) and an interpreter and translation service.
Cookstown and District Women’s Group
C&DWG was formed in December 1997 to help meet the needs of women within the Cookstown and surrounding area. The vision at the inception of the organisation was to meet the needs of ‘grass-root women’ and since then the organisation has remained at the fore of building community relations ensuring exclusivity for everyone. Since the groups formation ten years ago over 3,000 women have participated on various levels of programmes – be that recreational, vocational or non-vocational courses with many of them attaining qualifications and progressing to 3rd level education, gaining employment as tutors, managers and entrepreneurs.
Derry City Council’s Women Officer and Foyle Women’s Information Network
Established in 1994, FWIN is an information network for community based women’s centres, group’s, individuals and organisations. The vision of the group was the provision of a supportive place for women and women’s groups from different neighbourhoods and different venues all over Derry/Londonderry to meet. These gatherings have provided opportunities for women to discuss health issues, education matters and politics, to try out new ideas, make new contacts and friends and to offer and exchange information. FWIN works closely with local women’s organisations and develops relationships with women’s organisations regionally, nationally and internationally.
The WOMEN’S TEC is the largest quality provider of training for women in non-traditional skills in Northern Ireland. Based in Belfast, the organisation enables women to return to employment in non-traditional sectors and contributes to reducing the chronic skills shortage in the Construction and ICT industries.TEC stands for Training, Enterprise and Childcare, as the organisation provides such valuable facilities to women who are socially and economically disadvantaged, ultimately offering them new career and life perspectives.
Visiting areas of historical and political interest. Listen to two perspectives of how the Northern Irish conflict affected two communities and what life is like now.
Using international law to obtain strategic gains for women in conflict and post-conflict situations – Janet Benshoof, Esq. President and Founder of the Global Justice Centre in New York – In this workshop Professor Bensfoof will discuss the advances in international human rights law most important for women’s equality focusing on ‘power’ and not ‘pity’.
Professor Benshoof will examine the opportunities, obstacles and challenges in transforming what are viewed as ‘soft’ laws into enforceable ‘hard’ law including Security Council resolution 1325, CEDAW, the ICCPR and the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court. The workshop will examine the dichotomy between international laws, such as those requiring gender parity in government, or those guaranteeing women the right to criminal accountability for gender crimes, and domestic law guarantees of equality (or lack thereof). Professor Benshoof will work with participants to explore how these issues are present in Northern Ireland and how international legal strategies can be utilised to promote gender equality in this context.