All Saints receive £175k for Waterside peace project

The All Saints Caring Association have received the funding towards a two-year community empowerment project aimed at engaging people from both communities in the Waterside area to develop positive community relations, volunteers, and community infrastructure.

The project will also see further development of an ongoing cross-border relationship with the Colgan community in Carndonagh County Donegal.

Another local project set to receive part of the latest IFI funding tranche is the Inishowen Women’s Information Network/Mid Ulster Women’s Network: Exploring New Directions, which will receive £214,895 for a two-year programme of activities aimed at encouraging women in rural communities to engage in civic activity in their community and to share this with women in other communities on a cross-border and cross-community basis.

Elsewhere, the Lifford/Clonleigh Resource Centre will receive £199,225 towards a two-year project which will identify 10 cross-community and cross-border hubs in Inishowen, County Donegal and Limavady in County Londonderry to promote reconciliation by linking past and present through the exploration of local history using ICT.

Finally, the Inishowen Development Partnership Football4Peace Ireland Sustainability Programme will get £137,500 towards a two-year coaching programme designed and accredited by the University of Ulster.

The programme will cover Culture and Attitudes, Equality and Diversity, Conflict Identification and Resolution, Sports Leadership, Coaching Skills, Communication Skills, and the use of sport and physical activity as a tool for integration.

The announcement was made following the Fund’s recent Board meeting which took place in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

Dr Denis Rooney CBE, Chairman of the Fund, said: “The recent street disturbances in East Belfast have highlighted that the peace process remains fragile and that within many communities there are those who are vulnerable to being exploited for violent ends, particularly in interface areas.

“The events in East Belfast also underlined the important role that community leaders play in defusing tensions.

“The work of improving community relations is a long-term task. The Fund is committed to breaking down traditional barriers in order to help build positive relations between the two main communities on the island of Ireland.

“We are working in some of our most marginalised communities to promote mutual understanding and respect so that we can meet our objective of establishing a peaceful society free from fear, isolation, mistrust and the threat of violence.

“The funding announced today will go towards a number of projects which will break new ground in our unstinting efforts to overcome the legacy of the Troubles and to establish cross-community cooperation and reconciliation as the norm in our society.”