Funding secured for the over 55's

A LIMAVADY 55 plus club have been granted a slice of a £5.9m package to promote peace building and reconciliation in the area.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Mar 2010, 08:18 BST

Roe Valley 55+ Club are set to benefit from a grant of 9,144 from the International Fund for Ireland's Integrating Community Organisations Programme. The club joins just one other club from Donegal in the same category, who will share the funding with the Roe Valley based group. The International Fund for Ireland announced last week that it was to release 5.9m/€7m to support a wide range of reconciliation and peace building projects. Among the beneficiaries of this latest funding package are eight cross-community partnerships between grassroots community organisations across Northern Ireland and the southern border counties. The partnerships are all participating in the Fund's ground-breaking Integrating Community Organisations Programme. In total, these eight partnerships will receive 719,791/€863,749. Speaking at the Board meeting, Fund Chairman Denis Rooney CBE said: "The Integrating Community Organisations Programme is at the very heart of the Fund's work. It has provided a truly unique combination of support, training and funding to bring together a wide range of community groups to deliver genuinely shared projects and experiences for their wider communities. The Integrating Community Organisations Programme was launched by the Fund in 2008 and has had considerable success in facilitating and supporting significant partnerships between community organisations representing Unionist and Nationalist traditions and from both sides of the border. The Programme's ultimate aim is to encourage meaningful, lasting partnerships as a means of encouraging dialogue between communities and promoting reconciliation.

Denis continued: "While we have made great progress towards peace, we still live in a largely segregated society – sometimes living very separate lives from our closest neighbours. The courage of organisations and communities who are attempting to build relationships with those from the other tradition should not be underestimated. Just a few years ago, it would have been almost unthinkable for some of these communities to work together. Their achievements should give us real hope for the next generation. It is only by bringing communities together in such practical ways that we can build lasting peace."