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Community Support

Community Support design

What is Community Support about?

The Community Support Unit aims to assess the needs of the community sector in East Belfast and work with community groups and other key organisations to draw up programmes, projects, plans and strategies that build capacity and work towards developing a strong, effective and confident sector.

The work we undertake includes:

ADVOCACY
We provide support for lobbying and collective action.

PROVISION OF ADVICE AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICES
For example to help to establish new organisations, signposting services, support to source, apply for and manage funding, project management support, organisation of information seminars, topical conferences, funding, health and volunteer related events, etc.

INFORMATION SHARING
Through access to a resource library, and a weekly email information bulletin.

PROMOTION OF BEST PRACTICE
Through sharing policies, provision of training and organisation of shared learning visits.

CO-ORDINATING LOCAL NETWORKS
For example East Belfast Community Development Cafe and the Inner East Forum. We also organise various social and work related networking opportunities.

CO-ORDINATING CONSULTATIONS
Allowing collective responses to government, funding and strategic documents.

SUPPORTING PARTNERSHIP WORKING
Through involvement with local Neighbourhood Partnerships, support to develop local action plans, facilitation of partnerships between groups and other agencies and support to problem solve at a local level.

East Belfast Community Sector Networking Opportunities

EBCDA co-ordinates a range of regular networking opportunities that take place on a monthly basis:

  • East Belfast Community Development Cafe;
  • East Belfast Youth Practitioners Forum;
  • East Belfast Race Relations Forum;
  • East Belfast Drug and Alcohol Stakeholder Forum.
  • East Belfast Housing Providers Forum
  • East Belfast Volunteering Forum

Contact Jonny Currie, Community Development Director, at jonny@ebcda.org for more information on any of these opportunities.