The community and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland 'has been abandoned' as vital organisations face huge cuts due to the loss of European Union funding. Here, they tell of their plight
The community and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland "has been abandoned" as vital organisations face huge cuts due to the loss of ESF funding that has provided support to thousands of society's most vulnerable.
To date local Departments have declined to fully replace the £13m they previously provided whilst the UK Government’s new UK Shared Prosperity Fund provides only a partial replacement for the current ESF programme. Marc, who grew up in the Shankill Road area said that after leaving school he had struggled with university and ended up unemployed for nearly a year as he found it difficult to find a focus in life. However through working with the Start programme run by Include Youth and Alternatives, he is now a youth worker himself and studying at university.
"If I didn't get that support through the Start programme and Alternatives I wouldn't be where I am today, where I have managed to get qualifications and personally develop and have been working with Alternatives for the past seven years as a youth worker and am even studying at the University of Ulster."
"Due to the age that I had my daughter at, I became involved with social services and my social worker offered me a place at tech for an education course and I initially laughed at her at first, because that is how I saw my life, I had no hope or goals for the future. "I reached back out to Include Youth and they continued to help me and if it wasn't for the opportunities and wrap-around support they provided I don't know where I would be and they have never left me and it keeps me going knowing they are there for me."
"The loss of this funding is not only going to hurt the economy, but cripple young people and their education and take away opportunities that do so much good work. Marc and I are no longer dependent on the benefit system or mental health services anymore and are able to give back to our communities and break the cycle and if you take that away many young people will be lost, with no direction in life.
“While Westminster has shown some flexibility with funding, the lack of purposeful engagement from our local departments has been extremely disappointing. Given that these departments have a statutory duty to provide employability services, I struggle to understand why they are prepared to let these services and jobs disappear.
“It has taken years for the sector to build up the expertise which lies behind that success – those skills are now at serious risk of being lost and it’s hard to see how they’ll be replaced. Valerie McConville, CO3’s Chief Executive, added: “I hope departmental officials will take this last opportunity to acknowledge the overwhelming political support to safeguard these services and respond with meaningful funding.
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