Community and Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Support - future plans

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

When Where Eventbrite 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.

Back to top