'Does Every Child Matter?' conference

Thursday 26th May 2005, Balmoral Hotel

Local children were top of the political agenda at the Does Every Child Matter conference hosted by the West Belfast Partnership on behalf of the Belfast Area Partnerships.

The conference, titled Does Every Child Matter? brought together community based early-years providers and government to examine the state of the sector.

Children’s champions Baroness May Blood and the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, Nigel Williams participated in the event. Early year’s workers from the Upper Andersonstown Community Forum, The Good Shepherd Nursery and the Hobby Horse Playgroup on the Shankill also outlined the services they provide and highlighted the impending crisis facing many early-years providers which will result in the closure of services and facilities from June 2005.

Developing Community Capacity

Monday 6th December 2004, NICVA

The Belfast Area Partnerships (BAPs) held a conference in North Belfast on Monday, 6 December 2004 designed to learn from experience throughout Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland on how local communities engage with government to tackle poverty and disadvantage through regeneration programmes.

Colleagues from Glasgow, Birmingham and Dublin shared their respective experiences and there will be major presentations made by Joe Montgomery, Director General, Tackling Disadvantage Group, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; David Simmonds, Director of the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion; and Dave Wall, Director of the Voluntary and Community Unit, Department for Social Development.

North Belfast Partnership coordinated the conference on behalf of the Belfast Area Partnerships.

Neighbourhood Renewal - Making it Real

Wednesday 9th June 2004, Spectrum Centre

To those involved in Regeneration Neighbourhood Renewal is a very current topic. BAPs took the opportunity to hold the third of its events under the Development Project as an intercity conference on the topic of Neighbourhood Renewal.

The event offered delegates from statutory and community organisations across Belfast a chance to hear from and question some of the practitioners and policy makers in the field of neighbourhood renewal. Beyond Belfast other speakers travelled from Dublin, Manchester and Somerset to attend the conference and considered a number of key issues and challenges facing those involved in the Neighbourhood Renewal process - from the involvement of the private sector to citizen's juries to the benefits of joined up government working.

The Greater Shankill Partnership and South Belfast Partnership jointly facilitated the event which was held in the Spectrum Centre.

Community Sustainability Meeting

Tuesday 23rd March 2004, Grosvenor House

Following the release of the Pathways for Change document on resourcing the community and voluntary sector, BAPs agreed it would be beneficial to produce a citywide agreed response which would highlight common issues, concerns and themes from across the five Partnership areas. It was agreed that such a response would add value to the process of shaping the Pathways for Change in a way that would sustain the community sector in these areas and act as a catalyst for the future lobbying of the Voluntary and Community Unit and other government departments.

The South Belfast Partnership organised a facilitated meeting on Tuesday 23rd March 2004 at Grosvenor House. This meeting pulled together community representatives from each of the five Partnership areas to discuss common citywide issues raised in response to the Pathways for Change document. As a result of this meeting a response document was developed and can be accessed via the Reports page of this website.

This event is the second in a series of events to be hosted by the Belfast Area Partnerships over the next two years as part of the Development Project.

Social Economy Event

Thursday 13th November 2003, Park Avenue Hotel

The East Belfast Partnership organised a major Social Economy Exhibition and Conference - the first of its kind in Northern Ireland - on behalf of BAPs which took place at the Park Avenue Hotel on Thursday 13th November.

Nearly 150 people attended the event which offered visitors the chance to take part in a conference session with key speaker Cheryl Kernot, Director of Learning at the School for Social Entrepreneurs London. 23 Social Economy Companies and Support Agencies were exhibiting at the event which gave people an opportunity to see products and services on offer from Social Enterprises and a series of workshops on various topics ran throughout the afternoon.

At the event the new Business for Good website was launched. The website has been developed jointly by BAPs and Avec Solutions and provides an online directory of social economy companies and support organisations across Northern Ireland.

This event is the first in a series to be hosted by the Belfast Area Partnerships over the next two years as part of the Development Project.