Newry has been one of the most financially deprived areas for the development in Northern Ireland for the past 40 years. Despite this statistic volunteering in community groups is a very strong ethic in the city with a flourishing amount of people giving of their time without pay. The Confederation of Community Groups (CCG) based in Ballybot House is providing an essential resource for local people of all ages and backgrounds to seek advice and funding for local associations. CEO of the CCG Raymond Jackson spoke to the Newry Reporter this week as the umbrella expands on its already 300 member groups. “We wouldn’t be here today without the initial insight funding from Newry and Mourne District Council back in the 1970s,” explained Mr Jackson. Ballybot House and now its sister building An Storas are located in the city’s Cornmarket district. While the CCG is a non-profit organization it is self funding through leasing of its property top local enterprise groups. A business acumen has ensured the CCG can offer Newry Community groups further potential development in a financially demanding economy. “We aim to help all groups in the community and there is now a thriving amount of community centres across the city from Barcroft to Three Ways in High Street and Carnagat. We are now in the process of helping the community of Drumalane apply for funding to the Department of Social Development (DSD) for their own activity building on the Omeath Road. All of these community centres bring an identity to each area of Newry as well as well as providing access to education in fields such as computers and First Aid,” he added. The high value of community centres for children in the Newry area has been compounded by the spike ion levels of relative child poverty in the North. A recent Institute of Financial Studies (IFS) report has shown a steady climb in child poverty at over 30 per cent in Northern Ireland a statistic 10 per cent higher than the UK average.
Minorities
“We have found that there is a special need for people in Newry who may experience social exclusion. There is a need to identify and assess areas of concern in each part of the city in order to bring about positive outcomes,” Mr Jackson said. “We have worked with the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender (LGBT) community who were successful themselves through the Rainbow Club to establish a community centre on Hill Street. “The Black Minority and Ethnic (BME) Community as well as the Traveller Community is a growing population in Newry with High levels of immigration and can often be hard to reach through language barriers and literacy issues. This is something we are keen to focus on in the near future in the neighbourhood renewal project. Many young people will freely access places such as the magnet centre, after school programmes and their own community centres. “With BME and Traveller Communities it can be hard to engage so this is something we would like to expand on to enable overall development of community relations and funding for programmes through the Peace III initiative.
Transforming your care
The role out of the future of Health in Northern Ireland is projected to follow the proposals of the Compton Report after Transforming Your Care (TYC) was published in the latter part of 2013. The Southern Health Trust Supported document has already been acted on and retracted on with the planned 100 per cent closure of residential care homes causing a public outcry for the Compton Report to be binned. The CCG believes the TYC is “lacking in the essential human touch” that can lead to life and death situations. Whilst we would agree with parts of TYC and care for the elderly in the community in principle we are concerned that there may not be enough service provision or indeed funding required to implement this programme,” said Mr Jackson. CCG already has its older people’s programmes with almost 80 volunteers dedicated to the Good Morning Good Neighbour Programme. Our volunteers contact older people in the community by telephone who would like to have a chat each day to check on the m and how they are doing. This would just not function without the volunteers giving up so much of their time freely. The amount of time given under TYC to communication with the elderly is severely diminished which can cause them to be isolated from others generating depression and loneliness. As an example we can see that delivery of Meals on Wheels can sometime only be given the bare minimum of time for delivery of food. There is no one to spend some time talking with the person, heating up their food and making sure they have been able to feed themselves. The CCG would like to see an improvement in bringing about the plans of TYC for older people by offering a more robust and caring service rather than a time monitored financially driven model. We all know that people will mentally and physically get healthier by being able to stay at home and not in the hospital for long periods of time,” he added.
Contact
The CCG has several arms of contact for the community with a working relationship with government bodies. The Ballybot House headquarters has become a centre of excellence hosting 20 voluntary and community groups recognized at a recent awards ceremony as a Best Social Enterprise. With such groups as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Action Health and Volunteer Now, the umbrella organization has become a power house ready and willing to function for people for the Greater Newry area. “We are always seeking new volunteers to join our various community groups. “It is a matter of people having a centre of contact so we can build a better Newry for all the people with the help of the people from all parts of the community ,” added Mr Jackson. To contact the CCG at Ballybot House tel 028 3026 1022 or email info@ccgnewrycommunity.org and ask for the community group you are seeking.
Newry Rreporter
22nd January 2014
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