Building Change Trust looking into Cross-Border learning in the Community and Voluntary Sector

As part of its work looking at Creating Space for Civic Thinking, the Trust commissioned Andy Pollak and Brian Harvey from the Centre for Cross Border Studies to write an opinion piece looking at the potential for cross border exchange and learning between community and voluntary organisations.

Their findings, as well as response and debate from leading figures in the community and voluntary sector on both sides of the border, will be presented at the Canal Court Hotel in Newry on Friday 18th October at 10:30.

Director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Avila Kilmurray, Deirdre Garvey, from The Wheel, consultant Paddy Logue, the County Monaghan Community Network’s Breege Lenihan, Seamus McAleavey from NICVA and Pete Sheridan from Co-Operation Ireland will all be sharing their thoughts on the issues raised by the  paper. 

The Trust was established in 2008 by the Big Lottery Fund with a National Lottery grant of £10million as an investment for community capacity building and promotion of the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland.

Trust Director of Operations, Nigel McKinney said: “With government funding shrinking and social need ever-increasing, the role of the Community and Voluntary sector has never been more crucial.

“At the Trust we are dedicated to the development of the Sector in Northern Ireland, and the learning from developments elsewhere in the UK and Ireland is important.

“Much of the learning about change and future possibilities in the sector understandably comes from elsewhere in theUK. However, given the impact of the recession South of the border and the response of the state and civil society organisations we think there may be advantages for the community and voluntary sector in NI to learn from those developments.

"This conference, as part of our Creating Space for Civic Thinking strand of work, is just one way the Trust is showing its dedication to helping develop the Community and Voluntary Sector inNorthern Ireland. We are also working in the areas of Social Finance, Collaboration, Impact Measurement, Social Innovation and Leadership”.

Registration for the event is still open, please click here to register and click here to download “The Potential for Cross Border Exchange and Learning in respect of change in the Community and Voluntary Sector.”