Posts tagged ‘Voluntary’
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Belfast Exposed was set up almost 30 years ago to help communities deal with political unrest and show the realities of living through the Troubles. Emma Blee visits to find out how the organisation has adapted over the years.
While some industries in Northern Ireland have been hit hard by the economic downturn, Belfast Exposed − the province’s only dedicated photography gallery − has actually been growing in popularity.
Described by its Director Pauline Hadaway as “one of Belfast’s best kept secrets”, the gallery was set up as a voluntary organisation in 1983 to allow local...
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Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Culture, People, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Peter Cheney considers what David Cameron’s main social policy means in practice and the reaction so far in Northern Ireland.
Is the state good or bad for society? Your answer to this answer is likely to influence what you think of David Cameron’s grand plan, for it automatically means less government. A rich sense of community will be revived, supporters say, while critics dismiss it as a cover-up for spending cuts.
The Big Society’s author now has the authority to put it into practice and agendaNi is starting a new series to explore its real meaning. This first article looks...
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Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Politics, Social, Voluntary, Westminster | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
A group of green-fingered volunteers are sowing some happiness into the lives of the elderly in Cookstown.
Emma Blee met up with the group to find out more.
The growing cost of food and an increase in the number of people eager to learn new skills has turned out to be the perfect recipe for a lunch club in Cookstown.
An Age Concern group in the town runs the club five days a week and a meals-on-wheels service six days a week. As vegetable prices began to soar, so too did their running costs and organisers became worried about whether it could continue.
It was only when 86-year-old...
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Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Environment, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
The John Hewitt is one of the most well-known bars in Belfast but is also a successful centre for helping the unemployed. Emma Blee finds out more.
Belfast’s John Hewitt is what many would call a “proper” bar. There is no music – except live entertainment − and no television, just good old-fashioned talking. It is also very unique in that it is the only bar in Ireland to be owned by a charitable organisation and also tackles unemployment.
In 1995, founder and chair of the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre (BURC), Brendan Mackin, returned from a trip to Liverpool where he had...
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Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Culture, People, Voluntary | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 24th, 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...
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Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Homepage Stories, Housing, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
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...
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Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Health, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
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...
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Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Economy, Politics, Voluntary | No Comments »
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...
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Tags: Voluntary
Posted in Assembly, Issues, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
