Photo: Clodagh McDonnell, Principal Officer, Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government addresses the conference.
Pavee Point was delighted to participate in this week’s Pobal/SICAP seminar on engagement with target groups. This was a very welcome space to focus on how to eliminate discrimination, promote equality and protect human rights through the Government’s Social Inclusion Community Activation Programme.
We heard from Clodagh McDonnell of the Dept. of the Environment about both the challenges and the positive outcomes from the first 10 months of operation of SICAP. She said that they have taken on board lessons emerging from the first period of operation and highlighted the need to focus more on how SICAP can achieve ‘soft’ outcomes such as building confidence and measuring ‘the path travelled’ by disadvantaged individuals and groups. She cautioned against any under spend in budgets in 2016 and explained that a gender mainstreaming support is on its way.
Rachel Doyle of Community Work Ireland addressing the conference.Siobhan McLaughlin, Donegal Travellers’ Project at the workshop on Traveller and Roma inclusion.Gabbi Muntean, Pavee Point Roma Programme at workshop on Traveller and Roma inclusion.Mary Brigid Collins, Nancy Collins and Martin Collins at the Pobal/SICAP conference at the Gibson Hotel.
The importance of a Community Development approach to build greater engagement with excluded groups was highlighted by Rachel Doyle of Community Work Ireland before we broke into groups for workshops with ourselves, the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Migrants Rights Centre, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed and the Disability Federation of Ireland.
In the afternoon Pobal highlighted the importance of ethnic data collection in helping SICAP identify gaps in reaching their target groups.
About 200 people from Local Community Development Committees, Local Authorities and Partnershships /Programme Implementers attended the conference and general feedback from the conference will help direct further actions in this area.
