Friday, September 2nd, 2011
The Building Change Trust Investing in Social Change; working to make today’s challenges tomorrow’s opportunities.
The Building Change Trust was established by the Big Lottery Fund with a National Lottery grant of £10 million as an investment for community capacity building and promotion of the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland.
info@buildingchangetrust.org www.buildingchangetrust.org T: 028 9040 8725
New Life Counselling New Life Counselling is committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing needs of our clients. We provide free counselling...
[full story]
Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Voluntary | Comments Off
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Rev Ian Ellis, Secretary of the Transferor Representatives’ Council, explains the main Protestant churches’ role in education. Joint Protestant-Catholic church schools, he suggests, can encourage more sharing.
Why should the Protestant churches have a role in education?
The Church of Ireland, and Presbyterian and Methodist Churches in Ireland have historically had a significant role to play in education in Ireland. They were original owners and managers of church schools which in Northern Ireland were transferred into state control following partition in 1921.
In return for this...
[full story]
Tags: Education
Posted in Culture, Education, Reform, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Monday, June 6th, 2011
Profiles of some of the key ‘movers and shakers’ across Northern Ireland’s economic, political, business and public sectors.
Roy Adair Roy Adair was appointed Chief Executive of Belfast Harbour Commissioners in 2005. Roy’s career began in a number of engineering and manufacturing roles with Rothmans before being appointed Director and General Manager of Flexibox International. Becoming the first Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Quality Centre in 1990 he then joined DDL Inc in 1994 to run Irlandus Circuits, a company which he subsequently bought from the Group in...
[full story]
Tags: Who’s who
Posted in Culture, Economy, Homepage Stories, People, Politics, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Monday, June 6th, 2011
Bryson’s Chief Executive, John McMullan, discusses social enterprise with Owen McQuade and points out its potential to change Northern Ireland’s economy and public services.
Changing the paradigm of how the Bryson Charitable Group works has brought dividends and enabled it to better serve Northern Ireland’s society, John McMullan contends. Its example, in his view, shows the clear benefits of social enterprise to the province.
Bryson’s Chief Executive sees sustainability as a running thread in the charity’s 105-year history. “It began with not wanting to throw money at issues...
[full story]
Tags: Cover story
Posted in Business, Economy, Reform, Social, Top Story, Voluntary | No Comments »
Friday, April 15th, 2011
Unite is Britain’s biggest trade union and is organised in both the UK and Ireland. Formed in 2009 after a merger between two other large unions, the Transport and General Workers Union and Amicus, Unite was “created to meet the great challenges facing working people in the 21st century”.
It had 43,426 members in Northern Ireland and 36,859 members in the South, as of 31 December 2009. All sectors of the workforce are covered and, in Northern Ireland, a third of its membership is drawn from the public sector. The voluntary and community sector also makes up around 5 per cent of...
[full story]
Tags: Trade union profile
Posted in Economy, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Friday, April 15th, 2011
Children as young as eight are caring for a parent or family member in Northern Ireland. Young Carers NI’s Julia McKeown tells Emma Blee about the problems they face and the support available.
“You would be amazed at how many very responsible tasks that very young children have to do. You would have children of 12 that run a whole household and that wouldn’t be unusual,” remarks project manager Julia McKeown.
The organisation provides support for around 600-700 young people at any one time who look after or care for a parent or relative who is ill, has a disability, a mental...
[full story]
Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Education, Health, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Friday, March 11th, 2011
A bill of £700 million could have been racked up in treating the growing number of people in the province addicted to drugs and alcohol last year, according to an addiction charity. Emma Blee writes.
“Alcohol is still the big problem in Northern Ireland, drugs sometimes get more attention but alcohol is the main problem,” states Addiction NI’s director Claire Armstrong.
A DHSSPS census of drug and alcohol treatment services showed that on 1 March 2010, 5,846 people were in treatment for addiction, a 15 per cent increase from March 2005.
Some 57 per cent of these people were...
[full story]
Tags: Health
Posted in Economy, Health, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Northern Ireland’s child poverty strategy is to be presented to the Assembly in March but critics claim it lacks detail. Emma Blee reports.
Around 174,000 children in Northern Ireland are thought to be currently living in poverty and the number is expected to rise as job and welfare cuts hit hard.
Under the UK-wide Child Poverty Act, OFMDFM is required to put together a child poverty strategy by March. Launching the consultation in December, Robin Newton said that the prospect of cuts “makes it even more important to focus on this issue, to decide what we need to do to tackle it...
[full story]
Tags: Social
Posted in Assembly, Education, Finance, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
A new series on Northern Ireland’s unions.
Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA)
NIPSA is Northern Ireland’s largest trade union and one of four based in the province. Members’ jobs, in its words, vary from “architects to zoologist”, and as the name suggests, the union draws its membership mainly from the public sector.
Northern Ireland Civil Service staff make up 47 per cent of members. After justice devolution, membership from the NIO and other UK Government departments is negligible. The wider public sector accounts for 51 per cent, while the remaining 2 per cent...
[full story]
Tags: Trade union profile
Posted in Economy, Voluntary | No Comments »
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
The number of all-party groups meeting at Stormont has increased in recent years but Pat Ramsey believes the learning disability group is still one of the most important. Emma Blee writes.
“There are a number of core Assembly members who have a reputation of being conscientious in all-party groups and then they’re caught,” jokes Pat Ramsey.
However, with seven of the groups to contend with, he is serious when he claims it is often “difficult to juggle” his time. As well as chairing the learning disability group, he also works on groups dealing with road safety, cancer and diabetes...
[full story]
Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Education, Health, Voluntary | No Comments »
