The Community Foundation in Fermanagh is an organisation dedicated to meeting the needs of groups and individuals within our community. Through our research we maintain a clear picture of some of the most pressing needs in the County. The following examples illustrate ways in which the Foundation has been instrumental in initiating effective community projects.
Community and Voluntary Group Mentoring Support Programme
Many areas of the County have suffered from a lack of community based activity. The Fermanagh Trust is helping to address this by implementing a Community Mentoring Service which links up and matches mentors from the public, private and voluntary sectors with community and voluntary based groups. This is an on site practical support programme which helps to inspire commitment, focus direction and build capacity within these organisations.
The mentors provide these organisations with sustained support over a defined period of time in localised settings. Organisations who have participated on this programme range from housing estate-based groups in Cavanaleck and Drumgallon in Enniskillen to, townland and village-based groups i.e., Letterbreen, Churchill and Bellanaleck to, issue based groups i.e., Jolly Tots Playgroup (Ballycassidy), St Vincent de Paul (Enniskillen) and the Ulster Cultural Historical Society.
If you would like to find out more about The Trust's Mentoring Programme, please contact us.
Community and Voluntary Group Networking Challenge Programme
The Fermanagh Trust endeavours to put local groups in contact with each other. The purpose of these meetings are to disseminate information and to learn from the experiences of others. In particular the Trust recognises the current low level of contact which exists between single identity communities in Fermanagh.
This networking programme involves group visits including cross border visits and bringing groups together for workshops and seminars around particular themes and issues. This is helping to address the non involvement of single identity communities with no community reconciliation activities.
If you would like to find out more about The Trust's Networking Programme, please contact us.
Enniskillen Urban Estates I.C.T. Networking, Regeneration and Reconciliation Project.
The Trust has developed a successful Information Communication Technology (I.C.T.) networking project within the eight public housing estates within Enniskillen town over the past 8 months. This project has equipped and trained the representative groups of these estates to utilise the new technologies in their networking, regeneration and peace building needs. All of the groups are currently on-line and have developed their own websites. In addition, the groups with the support of the Fermanagh Trust and through the generous support of the Northern Ireland Fund for Reconciliation and the PEACE II Fermanagh Local Strategy Partnership have developed a new dedicated enniskillen estates website which is an online resource to support the estates in their community development, regeneration, peace-building and collaboration efforts. The website is www.enniskillen.org.
If you would like to find out more about the Trust's Enniskillen Estates I.C.T. Project, please contact us.
Fermanagh Communities On-line Initiative
The Fermanagh Communities On-line Initiative which is being facilitated and led by the Fermanagh Trust is a unique county-wide project. The Initiative which began back in November 2002 and which will run to July 2004 has equipped and trained 42 voluntary and community organisations from throughout rural Fermanagh. The aim of the project has been to enable rural community groups to harness the potential of internet technology for their rural community development, regeneration and reconciliation goals. Participant groups have been trained in the use of the new technology, as well as being provided with new and or upgraded internet ready computer equipment as required. Further, each of the groups with the provision of the new internet ready equipment have established shared access points within their community facilities for the wider general public within their rural districts and hinterlands. This project is very much about widening access to new internet technology for the wider rural community of County Fermanagh.
If you would like to find out more about The Trust's Fermanagh Communities On-line Initiative, please contact us. The website is http://www.fermanagh.info
Community Sustainibility in Action: Breaking New Ground Sustainibility in Action: Breaking New Ground
Community Sustainability in Action: Breaking New Ground' will support and enhance community sustainability within County Fermanagh post 2004 - 2006 through a strategic, integrated, comprehensive and collaborative initiative which will comprise of three key elements. The three key project elements which are mutually reinforcing are:
- Undertaking 'Collaborative Strategic Community Sustainability Research' which will examine the likely impact and scenarios of the impending decline in European and other funding receipts, as well as the evolving policy context on the community and voluntary sector and its work post 2004 - 2006 and beyond. Further, the research will examine and propose, drawing on lessons of best practice where possible from other contexts, future short/ medium/long-term responses/ strategic support configurations and interventions for 2004 - 2006 and beyond that will ensure that an appropriate support framework and interventions are in place that can facilitate effectively and appropriately local community and voluntary organisations through the impending period of transition and change which shall be necessary.
- Encourage and support the development and evolution of new sustainable community and voluntary sector structures at a grass-roots level through an innovative and specific 'Collaborative Mentoring Support Programme'. This project will work with up to 10 community and voluntary collaborative alliances over the period of the project in order to facilitate and support these collaborations to develop more effective, sustainable and efficient organisational alliances/ mergers/ structures that will enable them to continue to address the needs and opportunities of their constituents up to and beyond 2006. The Fermanagh Trust, will provide the necessary support through a mentor with skills in collaborative working, and who can help the initiatives access and apply the necessary organisational, legal, technical and financial inputs as appropriate. In it envisaged that a mentor will
spend up to 90 hours over a 9 month period coaching, mentoring and facilitating the participant community and voluntary organisations in their collaborative and organisational change and consolidation endeavours.
- Facilitate six 'Participative Challenge Fund Initiatives' through the
participation and involvement of issue and area based groupings contributing to their own financial autonomy and sustainability by building their own funds within the overall Fermanagh Endowment.
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