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  • Community and Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Support - future plans

    Topics:
    • Voluntary and community, 
    • Voluntary and community strategies and policies

    The Department is carrying out a programme of work aimed at refreshing the policy frameworks for our voluntary and community sector support. This includes agreeing with our partners on the outcomes that we should prioritise in future years. A review of sectoral needs will inform how we can better support the sector to deliver outcomes set out in any future Programme for Government.

    Future plans

    As part of this review, we engaged with a wide range of organisations in the sector, to draw together their collective experiences, understand key priorities and needs, listen to ideas and opinions, and add voice and input to help us shape future programmes for whom the refresh will deliver. We have also engaged with other departments, local government, independent funders and established a reference group comprising of a range of sectoral interests. See a complete overview of our engagement.

    We shared what we learned from our engagement sessions, and sought views on our proposed Infrastructure Support Framework through a public consultation which launched on 15 November 2023, lasting 12 weeks and closed on 9 February 2024. The proposed framework and consultation documents are still available to view.

    Have your say

    We welcomed views and responses on the proposed framework through our consultation events which were hosted both in person and online through November and December 2023.

    The events were in the form of roundtable discussions and were an opportunity to share thoughts, ideas or comments.

    Workshop consultation engagement events

    WhenWhereEventbrite Booking Details
    Tuesday 28 November
    11:00am - 12:30pm
    The Junction
    12 Beechvalley Way
    Dungannon
    BT70 1BS
    Registration now closed
    Wednesday 29 November
    11:00am - 12:30pm
    Holywell Trust
    10-12 Bishop Street
    Derry/Londonderry
    BT47 6PW
    Registration now closed
    Thursday 30 November
    2:00pm - 3:30pm
    Virtual (MS Teams)Registration now closed
    Tuesday 12 December
    7:00pm - 8:30pm
    Virtual (MS Teams)Registration now closed
    Wednesday 13 December
    11:00am - 12:30pm
    The Braid
    1-29 Bridge Street
    Ballymena
    BT43 5EJ
    Registration now closed
    Thursday 14 December
    11:00am - 12:30pm
    Duncairn Centre
    Duncairn Avenue
    Belfast
    BT14 6BP
    Registration now closed

    A response document on the public consultation and final policy framework will be published in due course.

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