:Looking IN

Friday, July 9th, 2010
Photographer Donal McCann explains how picturing homelessness on Belfast’s streets changed his attitude to the problem. There was something about the eyes of Belfast’s homeless people that really drew Donal McCann close to them. Some revealed sadness, others real hope. Twenty black and white portraits from the project with them were displayed at the Waterfront Hall’s ‘Looking In’ exhibition during June. He was invited by a friend involved in the Welcome Organisation to take some photos to document its work with rough sleepers. Welcome’s volunteer teams find people who are...[full story]

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Posted in Homepage Stories, Housing, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »

:Freedom from the past

Friday, July 9th, 2010
As Alcoholics Anonymous celebrates its 75th anniversary, Meadhbh Monahan finds out about a local member’s personal experience with alcoholism and how the organisation operates in Ulster. “Sometimes people think that to be an alcoholic you have to be a down-and-out, but that is not the case,” says the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) spokesman. Alcoholism is a world-wide disease that affects all ages, sexes and creeds, he contends. Initially created in Ohio in 1935, AA was established in Dublin in 1946 and came to Belfast in 1948. It currently operates on an all-Ireland basis with approximately...[full story]

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Posted in Health, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »

:A bounty in longer lives

Saturday, June 5th, 2010
Age NI Chief Executive Anne O’Reilly talks to Owen McQuade about why ageing holds plenty of opportunities for society and how government and business can take the challenge it poses more seriously. The benefits and not the burdens of ageing stand out to Anne O’Reilly 12 months into leading Age NI. Formed by the merger of Age Concern Northern Ireland and Help the Aged, the organisation forms a “very strong platform” for older people and O’Reilly sees it having the potential to make society a more age-friendly place for the growing number of citizens living longer. “We have...[full story]

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Posted in Economy, Social, Top Story, Voluntary | No Comments »

:Cameron’s big society

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Not only is the UK’s economy broken but its society as well. That was a recurring theme throughout David Cameron’s time in opposition, with the aim of a big society taking over from big government. Its immediate roots are in his re-invention of the Tories, when the new leader maintained that there was such a thing as society, contrary to Mrs Thatcher’s famous quote. However, this one nation conservatism is an old idea, going back to the days of Benjamin Disraeli. “Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy,” he lamented as he looked at unequal Victorian...[full story]

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Posted in Economy, Politics, Voluntary | No Comments »

:Making a good society

Friday, May 14th, 2010
agendaNi looks at some of the ingredients of ‘good living’, as recommended by the Carnegie Trust inquiry into civil society’s future in the UK and Ireland. Civil society has several meanings. It is people coming together voluntarily for the benefit of themselves and others, in one definition, while another describes it as the society we want to live in. A further view sees it as the places where people and organisations develop common interests and try to reconcile their differences peacefully. The future of society as a whole is, of course, well contested but the inquiry found...[full story]

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Posted in Reform, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »

:Faith forum

Monday, March 8th, 2010
Church-based work gets extra government support. Voluntary work by Christian and other religious groups will be recognised in a new forum, the Assembly has been told. Eighty-six per cent of people identified with some form of religion in the province’s 2001 census. Within that rough grouping, 46.7 per cent were Catholic and 52.9 per cent were from Protestant and other non-Catholic churches; the other religions accounted for a 0.35 per cent share, totalling 5,028 people. This, of course, does not translate into people practising a faith in some way; surveys suggest that figure is around...[full story]

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Posted in Assembly, Issues, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »

:Corporate community responsibility

Friday, March 5th, 2010
Business in the Community’s Northern Ireland Chair, Paul Rooney, talks to Peter Cheney about how BITC builds partnerships between good citizen companies and local communities. Putting good intentions into practice, he argues, actually engages and motivates a post-recession workforce. Doing good for the local community can be every bit as beneficial for the business, in Paul Rooney’s view. Since last July the PricewaterhouseCoopers partner has chaired Business in the Community in Northern Ireland, bridging the expertise of its 230-plus member companies, with schools, community groups...[full story]

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Posted in Business, Issues, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »