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28 September 2011

The Assembly Committee which oversees  the work of the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) today met members of the Community Relations Council’s Practitioners Forum at St Columb’s Park House in Derry/Londonderry as part of its outreach programme. The meeting was an opportunity for the MLAs  to hear about the important work of community relations from those directly involved at a community level.

CRC Chief Executive Duncan Morrow said:

“This is a welcome opportunity for the OFMDFM Committee to hear directly from those involved in practical initiatives and projects aimed at building a shared and inclusive society.  We hope that the committee will bring forward its own recommendations soon to influence the shape of policy on these issues from OFMDFM. We also look forward to a new, robust  CSI strategy which addresses the full scale and scope of the issues and is resourced to tackle them.”

CRC Chair Tony McCusker added,

“The Community Relations Council has been involved in supporting community relations initiatives for over twenty years and has enabled many hundreds of voluntary and community groups to develop the experience, contacts and skills to tackle segregation, sectarianism and racism. This work is an essential part of the peace process and needs to be acknowledged and built upon in the development of future government strategy and policies  for a shared and more resilient  society.”

At the meeting with the OFMDFM committee Community Relations practitioners outlined what issues they believed were still outstanding and needed to be addressed as part of the process of conflict transformation, regeneration and change to a better and more resilient society. These included:

• The Cost of a Divided Society
• Interfaces and contested space
• Shared space and Shared Housing 
• The need for a new CSI strategy.

After the discussion the community relations practitioners were invited by the committee to remain as observers as it held a formal committee session.

For further information contact Ray Mullan rmullan@nicrc.org.uk    tel. 0128 90 227500