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Major grants for Donegal projects
04.03.11
FIVE Donegal
peace-building projects have been granted
significant funding from the International Fund for
Ireland (IFI) under an allocation totalling €9.8m to
groups in the North and southern border counties.
The biggest beneficiaries among the five were
Donegal County Council and Strabane District Council
who jointly received over €1 million towards a
programme addressing the impact of the conflict on
the Strabane/Lifford area and its hinterlands. The
following are the five groups that received IFI
grants announced today.
Atlantic View Community Development Co: €182,745
towards workshops which will address a range of
community relations themes with a cross-cutting
mediation theme. This cross-community organisation
works with community groups in the Ballyshannon,
Bundoran, Rossnowlagh, Cashelard and surrounding
areas and supports community development activities
locally, regionally and nationally. The workshops
will bring together groups from North and South,
from both communities as well as groups
representative of the Security Forces.
North West Alcohol Forum: €311,874 towards a
two-year family resilience and reconciliation
programme targeting difficult to reach communities
in the Donegal and in particular the area of East
Donegal. The programme will be aimed at 144 adults
and 172 children (6-16 yrs). It will provide an
evidenced based and rigorously evaluated family
skills programme for children and their parents
(guardians) to break the destructive cycle that has
severely impacted on quality of family life and
individuals for the many years of the Troubles. |
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Pictured ahead of the recent
International Fund for Ireland board meeting were
IFI chairman, Dr Denis Rooney and Stella O’Leary,
recently-appointed US observer to the IFI. At the
meeting, the IFI approved funding of €9.8m for a
variety of peace-building and reconciliation
initiatives in Northern Ireland and the southern
border counties. |
Donegal Local
Development Company: €236,750 for Volunteering in
the Community Programme (integrating with Gaisce)
which will be delivered in 7 courses of 12 weeks
duration over a two and a half year period. The
course curriculum will up-skill the participants,
give them the opportunity to consider positive life
choices as opposed to becoming easy prey for
paramilitary interests, and experience at first hand
the opportunities and benefits of local
community-based voluntarism.
Donegal Youth Service: €265,838 towards the Beyond
Borders project. Young people, aged 12-25yrs will
engage in a cross community and cross border project
developed by the young people themselves and the
adults who work with them across Donegal and Tyrone.
The project will provide a range of cultural
experiences that will challenge social prejudice;
segregation and division from a young person’s
perspective.
Donegal County Council/Strabane District Council:
€1,004,887 towards a programme to address the impact
of the conflict on the Strabane/Lifford area and its
hinterlands by regenerating the border riverside
area and developing cross-community and cross-border
relationships through a dedicated programme of
reconciliation. This will be achieved through the
creation of an iconic shared space as a lasting
legacy of the Peace Process and consolidating the
work undertaken over the last 15 years in terms of
building peace and reconciliation. The project will
target the difficult to reach communities on both
sides of the border. |
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