A £1 million award from the UK Government will fund a three-year support programme for hundreds of grassroots organisations across Northern Ireland, delivered jointly by three of the region’s best-known community sector bodies.
The money comes from the Northern Ireland Office’s Community Partnership Fund and will go to Co-operation Ireland, working in partnership with Rural Action and NICVA. The three organisations will use it to run their ‘On the Radar: Pathways to Stronger Communities’ project, a staged programme of practical support aimed at smaller groups that often struggle to reach funding and development opportunities.
Delivery is structured in three tiers. The work begins with initial idea-generating workshops, moves into intensive mentoring for a core cohort of 30 organisations, and extends to training on accessing funding for up to 500 groups. By pooling their expertise in the community and voluntary sector, the three partners intend to act as a single point of entry for smaller organisations seeking help.
Baroness Ruth Anderson, the NIO Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, spoke at the launch event held at Co-operation Ireland’s Belfast headquarters. She described the grant as good news for the three delivery partners and for community and voluntary organisations across Northern Ireland. The grant, she said, would allow them to become a ‘single front door’ for the voluntary and community sector, sharing their considerable expertise in areas such as rural community development and cross-community peacebuilding to empower smaller local groups. She added that the Community Partnership Fund would be key to building a network of skills, knowledge and support that would enable organisations across Northern Ireland to flourish, to the benefit of their communities.
The delivery partners each framed the programme as a response to a familiar operational gap: smaller groups doing valuable work on the ground but lacking the resources, skills and access needed to grow.
Stephen Dallas, Chief Executive of Co-operation Ireland, said his organisation works with volunteers and groups at the heart of communities across Northern Ireland every day, and is all too aware that smaller grassroots groups can fall below the radar when it comes to access to funding and development opportunities. The support and investment from the Community Partnership Fund is very much welcomed, he said, and the On the Radar Programme will bring the important work of groups into view, help them access funding and empower people through their ambitions and ideas.
Celine McStravick, Chief Executive of NICVA, said her organisation is proud to be working with Co-operation Ireland and Rural Action, bringing together extensive knowledge of the voluntary and community sector and expertise in organisational development, governance, funding and sustainability. Too many grassroots groups make an invaluable contribution to their communities without having access to the skills, resources and opportunities needed to realise their full potential, she said. The programme is about changing that, meeting groups where they are and working alongside them to strengthen their foundations for the future.
Teresa Canavan, Chief Executive of Rural Action, highlighted the rural dimension of the delivery plan. Rural communities are sustained by the dedication, resilience and commitment of local volunteers and community organisations, she said, yet groups working tirelessly on the ground to improve the lives of others can find themselves overlooked or face barriers to accessing the funding, development support and other opportunities they need. She strongly welcomed the focus the programme places on engaging and supporting rural community groups, helping them build their capacity to deliver services in their local areas.
The three-year timetable and the tiered structure, from open workshops to targeted mentoring and funding training, are intended to move support from broad awareness to hands-on capacity building. For the organisations involved, the measure of success will be whether smaller groups across Northern Ireland can, in practice, reach the funding and development help that has often passed them by.