WorkCentres

Adding value to PEACE IV  Peace and Reconciliation Action Plans and Programme Delivery

A WorkCentre is a place where people can access the full package of Work It Out! support – training, individual advice, ongoing mentoring and practical help – to enable them to build their income, find work and create a better future.

The WorkCentres are usually equipped with computers and coffee! They are a practical and welcoming place to meet, support and help one another. Instead of sitting at home on their own (or at their desks), people have a place and a positive purpose to meet with each other – to create their workpieces, support each other, learn new skills, develop projects and build businesses.

We are currently delivering a range of local WorkCentres across the UK and the Republic of Ireland to support local people in finding work, earn income and build their careers. 

WorkCentres are available in four main formats:

1. To support the unemployed,
?2. To leverage the expertise of the underemployed (e.g. Local communities often come together with women returners, self-employed, graduates, those recently retired, part-time employees, etc to share experience and build local capacity),
3. To develop employees (e.g. some Local Authorities and Businesses use this approach to boost innovation and creativity),
?4. To support those in prison or detention (and enable them to build a future before they are released)

The latest WorkCentres …

Leveraging expertise across community – Clonmel Community Resource Centre, ROI.

Invest in Your Future programme for all Council Staff? – Stroud District Council, UK.

Leveraging expertise across community – Clonmel Community Resource Centre, ROI.

The Initial Workshop

Participants are typically invited to join the local WorkCentre following a three hour initial Workshop. This gives a first hand insight into the approach and way of working…..

Consultation Process

From Engagement and Empowerment to Partners in Design and Implementation

Engaging and linking with key groups and stakeholders

We will explore with Peace IV staff the potential for engaging and linking with key groups including of course the community and voluntary sector and elected representatives – but also Council staff, the business community, schools and colleges, local faith leaders of all traditions, prisoners, etc – in relation to understanding and addressing local priorities.

Presenting Peace IV Consultation findings and recommendations to Council

As well as the feedback to Councillors and Senior Staff we can deliver a workshop to other Council staff to help build understanding and linkages across the Council.  The ‘Peace IV Opportunities Workshop’ supports mainstreaming from the outset with better integration of all services for effective service delivery and joined up local government.

Introducing Peace IV Toolkits

 

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Community Engagement Toolkit

To support the Consultation Workshops (and ongoing active participation in Peace IV) Diversiton can provide a local Community Engagement Toolkit giving participants the tools, techniques, resources and methods they need understand local needs and priorities in their communities and so deliver effective initiatives.

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Mainstreaming Toolkit

How can we plan now to link initiatives and build critical mass? What is the most effective Mainstreaming process? How can Peace IV link to the Statutory Sector at all levels? What are the new types of partnerships that are needed – and why? The Mainstreaming Toolkit tackles these types of core strategic issues and comes with best practice models and case studies of how we really can do more locally with ‘less’.

 

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Sustainability Toolkit

Project funding is not just about delivery. It has to be about building social capital, creating community effectiveness and delivering results that last. What are we trying to achieve?  How will the work sustain itself?

The Sustainability Toolkit helps local organisations to ensure that initiatives continue beyond the ‘end of funding’.

Community Engagement Toolkit

 

The Community Engagement Toolkit is specifically designed for each Council Area and will include the following resources as necessary and appropriate to needs.

  1. Developing a Plan for Assessing Local Needs and Resources
  2. Describing your Community
  3. Conducting Public Events and Listening Sessions
  4. Facilitating Focus Groups
  5. Community Needs Assessment Surveys
  6. Community Report Cards
  7. Video, Phone, Text, Internet and Email Engagement Surveys
  8. Community SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
  9. Qualitative Methods to Establish Community Issues
  10. Community Mapping
  11. Audit of Community Assets and Resources
  12. Measuring Baseline Measures of Behaviours and Attitudes
  13. Surveys of Issues and Concerns
  14. Local Council Service Utilisation
  15. Interviews with Key Stakeholders
  16. Community Wellbeing and Building a Healthy Community
  17. Community Leadership Frameworks
  18. Small Area Analysis and Disparities
  19. Local Action Planning
  20. Accountability and Responsibility for Results

Children and Young People

a key theme for Peace IV

We are currently working with Local Councils, Education Providers, Health Care Bodies and the Community Sector on the proactive participation of ‘Children and Young people’ in Peace IV.  This collaborative work will extend from the consultation process events (which have the potential to involve thousands of local schoolchildren and young people), through to their active role in the design, implementation and management of the Programme.

Diversiton has worked with Children and Young People since the start of the Peace Process – with the support of the Department of Education and Science, Senator George Mitchell’s Fund for Reconciliation and other partners.   One initiative (the Onjodi project) linked schoolchildren from a range of schools in Northern Ireland with their counterparts in Namibia. They took over Stormont for a day!

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Northern Ireland Kids

The International ‘PeaceBuilder’ Programme for Children and Young People

Young people have an opportunity to link up with their counterparts in countries such as Ghana, Madagascar, Namibia, and Kenya. These initiatives offer incredible learning opportunities, life changing experiences and lifetime friends. We can design initiatives for young people in your area and link them into the wider network.

The International ‘PeaceBuilder’ Programme has received support from Paul Muldoon, Helena Bonham-Carter, Chris de Burgh, David Beckham, Alan Shearer, James Caan, Gary Linekar, Sting, Emma Thompson and many others.

Peace Education Programmes

Diversiton delivers a range of Peace Education training programmes worldwide. These are available in numerous formats including for example – an introductory one day workshop, 2 day residential or 13 week programme (1 day per week).

Peace Education can add real value by leveraging the effectiveness of Peace IV with new competencies, fresh perspectives and renewed energies. Peace Education gives us insights on regional conflicts across the world and provides the tools and techniques for local and international peace-building which are so important to-day. Key topics include:

Peace Education – different approaches and different strategies

Engaging Communities – creating inclusive and effective empowerment processes

Peacebuilding in other world contexts – lessons for us

Becoming personal peacemakers – how we can create a sustainable and lasting legacy

The ‘New Space’ model of Reconciliation

‘Collective Effectiveness’ – creating new partnership arrangements

Gandhi’s Nonviolence curriculum

Spiritual Peacebuilding models

Current Community and Peace-Building Initiatives

Here is a selection of some of the programmes we are delivering at the moment…

Next Step training package

The Next Step Process

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banbridge community club

Community Club

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Peace Education

 

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Equality and Diversity Training

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Community Sustainability programme

 

Peace Initiatives, Training and Support

As well as the ongoing work in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties, Diversiton and its Partners are currently delivering a range of peace consultancy/community empowerment initiatives across the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Some of these include:

  • Designing Peace Education (and nonviolence) programmes internationally with Aaron Gandhi (the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi).
  • Delivering anti-radicalisation programmes for inner-city London training bodies.
  • Supporting the Baha’i community in Cyprus in their peace-building work in the Turkish controlled North and the Cypriot controlled South.
  • Consultancy work on sectarianism in Bahrain (Sunni and Shia).
  • Working on community engagement and empowerment initiatives with Government Departments in Scotland, Slovakia, Wales and Australia on priorities such as peace building, engagement, anti-sectarianism and peace education.

Our practical experience reflects the new and challenging local/global context for peace building and engagement that we are all faced with. It also offers the potential for innovation, new approaches and fresh thinking in the design of local initiatives.

Contact us Northern Ireland Kids

If you think we can help or support you in any way please call or drop us an email.

Diversiton has a wide network of experienced trainers and facilitators. We are grateful for the opportunity to work in partnership with Local Councils, Community Groups, Universities/Colleges and leading Businesses – as well as a wide network of committed individuals.

We look forward to hearing from you at any time.

Contact Sharon(at)diversiton.com / call 02841 754 777