Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - Council Minutes

04 December 2007

Confirmed Minutes

In Attendance: John Cousins (Chair), Chris O’Halloran, Nigel McKinney, Caroline Wilson and Jim Campbell.

Apologies: Séan Coll, Micháela Mackin and Sheena Funston

Staff: Jacqueline Irwin, Joan Clements, Carol Taylor, Brian Mullan and Frances McClelland.

Minutes from previous meeting (12^th September 2007)

Agreed with no alterations.

Matters Arising:

Chris O’Halloran requested further information regarding the suggestion from Sheena Funston on the archiving work taking place in the Linen Hall Library.

Caroline Wilson explained the Linen Hall Library will archive organisations information such as annual reports, political pamphlets etc

Officers Reports:

Joan Clements & Brian Mullan

Half year verifications are now complete.

Joan Clements informed the committee that one organisation has not opened a separate bank account for CRC funding which has led to difficulty in verifying their core funding spend. The group will now be issued with a final warning and re-verified in January. Joan Clements will provide an update to the committee at the next meeting. Joan Clements also informed the committee that this organisation does not have any administrative support which has led to difficulties for the organisation.

Expenditure Report:

To date the scheme has seen just under £1.6million distributed to the Core Funding Scheme bringing the total of Core Funding administered by the CRC to date to just under £9million (from 2003). The scheme is due to end in March 2008.

Officers have been working to allow groups to reallocate their in year savings from the financial year 2006-2007. Work on this is almost complete and letters of offer will be going out to Core Funded groups in the coming weeks. Any money not reallocated will be made available through an application process to which all Core Funded groups can apply.

Befriending Work

A further 82 people have completed or are engaged with the befriending training provided by CRC via QE5 and ILM (consultancy and training body). This will bring the total to 200 people with accredited training from all over Northern Ireland. The certificate presentation ceremony was due to take place in December however many of the befrienders due to receive certificates are not available on this date. Joan Clements suggested to the committee to postpone this date until late January. Committee agreed.

Who Care’s for the Carer’s Update

There has been feedback from within the Western area and a steering group is in the process of being formed to consider funding for victims care unit that would emulate the Trauma Resource Centre Everton Complex Belfast. The model would reflect the unique needs within a rural setting. Importantly an exercise is currently underway to identify the strengths of individual groups within the area, how skills can be shared and standards set for each service.

The model will seek funding from various funders.

Armagh Health Board has now made contact and an appointment has been arranged for January 2008.

Brian Mullan met with Relatives for Justice who informed the Council that they have not received any formal information from OFMDFM regarding funding beyond March 08. As a result they have now had to place staff on protective notice.

Caroline Wilson suggested sending a letter to OFMDFM to outline these concerns and also this could possibly have a detrimental effect on the Council and its relationships with groups by not having any information to provide.

Duncan Morrowhas recently sent a letter highlighting these concerns as there has been no official announcement.

John Cousins requested the Councils’ Chairman contact OFMDFM to encourage an announcement to confirm the extension. Brian Mullan to liaise with Duncan Morrow and the Council Chairman.

Carol Taylor & Frances McClelland

Carol Taylor informed the committee that both schemes are now fully committed. The programme is still open to receive new applications until the 14^th December 2007. Applications requesting funding for projects have been prioritised into high, medium and low categories. The Council is unable to fund all projects that meet criteria. Groups have been informed of this position and Micháela Mackin has discussed the issues with the Victims Unit. Officers have looked at timescales of projects and where possible encouraging groups to re-apply for projects to take place in the new financial year. The programme will be opening for new applications from the 12^th February 2008.

The victims’ team and CRC staff had a roundtable discussion with Dr Sandra Bloom psychiatrist and Executive Director of the Sanctuary Leadership Development Institute. Dr Sandra Bloom shared her knowledge of working with trauma. The Wider Circle were awarded funding to bring Dr Bloom over to meet with their members and other victims &survivors organisations throughout the province.

Team Update

Brian Mullanpassed on Micháela Mackin’s thanks to the committee members for facilitating at the victims conference.

Micháela is currently working with the policy programme to draft a response to the Eames Bradley Consultation Group on the Past. At the request of the funded groups a seminar has been organised on the 11^th December at the Dungannon office/conference centre.

Discussion commenced on the “Hearing the Voices report – sharing perspectives in the victim/survivor sector”. Caroline Wilson stated that the report was excellent and hoped there would be an opportunity for further discussion.

Brian Mullanstated that all parties are keen to work on a programme of seminars to take this report forward. Brian reminded committee that the full report is available for download on the Council’s website.

Core Funding File Review – Soft Indicators

Brian presented a paper on the type of work carried out by the core funded organisations and what they though to be the potential benefits of each type of work they were carrying out.

Discussion commenced on the difficulty in measuring the outcomes of this work and the value will vary with each organisation.

It was agreed that Brian Mullan will make contact with CENI who have worked on measuring social economy indicators as there may be an overlap in the work and some of their concepts could be useful.

It was agreed that it is crucial to evaluate and this must be addressed. John Cousins suggested that ‘Qualitative’ should be used instead of the word ‘Indicators’ as it is important to measure in this sector.

Any Other Business

Jacqueline Irwinprovided an update to committee on Peace II measure 2.1 from SEUPB. They are due to meet shortly. Discussion will take place on the gap in funding.

Date of Next Meeting:

Date, time and locations of meetings for the next 12 months will be emailed to committee in due course.