All-Island must mean All-Voices welcome
By Denise Charlton,
The current debate about the future of relationships between both parts of our island is falling into a familiar pattern with many voices excluded.
It is true that 23-years on the Good Friday Agreement remains an international model of best practice in achieving peace. It is also true that it has not only delivered transformational change but has saved lives.
Yet despite these achievements the agreement and the peace process are not without their shortfalls, ones which we could be in danger of repeating.
When he launched the Shared-Island initiative by Government last October, the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, TD recognised that many voices were under-represented or absent when the future of relations not only on the island but also across the Irish Sea were being decided.
Those who were not heard included young people, women and diverse communities who now call both parts of our island home.
Larger than life political leaders and personalities of that time effectively overshadowed or drowned out the voices of entire communities leaving them over-looked, neglected or ignored.
Now as our social, economic and political future is back in the spotlight it is important that this time around those communities are not inadvertently, or otherwise, pushed aside and silenced.
All-Island Fund
Covid-19, Climate Action, Gender Based Violence in fact all major challenges communities face today have little respect for borders. Whether in Baltimore or Ballycastle, Listowel or Lisburn, Omeath or Omagh – they impact us all. The same can be said for Brexit and its impacts.
Volunteers, community workers and charities all have a role in responding to these challenges and they have been, albeit largely with a focus on just one jurisdiction.
At the Community Foundation for Ireland we work with 5,000 partner organisations. They carry out terrific work on the ground. Through Covid-19 many have been a lifeline. Yet when it comes to advancing social change their focus remains largely on Leinster House.
The same can be said of those organisations working in Northern Ireland, where they look to Stormont to influence change.
As a result our society is poorer. Equality on LGBTI+ rights, women’s rights and protections for children are often out of kilter across both jurisdictions.
The Community Foundation for Ireland is a current funder with the Government in the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Wicklow where we are invested in co-operation, dialogue and partnerships. Now it’s time to do more.
Together with our private donors we are inviting organisations in the South and North to partner up together. They will share experiences, research as well as advocacy which is effective and works.
This Thursday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, TD will join us and our partner on the project, The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland to launch a pilot fund of €500,000 to make this happen.
We will be inviting communities to apply together for grants of up to €20,000. It is our hope that the energy generated by local groups will attract more support so our fund can grow. We will be looking both to private donors as well as Government as it prepares a new policy on philanthropy over the coming months.
All voices must be heard
Philanthropy allows us to invest in communities in a way which is strategic, sustainable and solution driven. It invests longer term, often when other sources of funding or support is unable to step up to the mark.
Our new All-Island Community Fund will share these attributes. It will see civil society acting as one with a focus that is not inhibited by borders.
It is a new approach and one which will be asking community groups island-wide to examine in terms of coming together to become more effective in empowering groups who up until now have been silenced or marginalised right across our small island.
There is little doubt that in the years ahead we will be facing choices which potentially could take our shared island in a new direction. Whatever course we take it is important that everyone is allowed has an input. A strong civil society will be important to ensure that any changes have a rights-based focus and is representative of us all.
With our partners we are putting together tangible actions to ensure that whatever processes we embark upon that every voice is heard.
Denise Charlton is Chief Executive of The Community Foundation for Ireland, which over the past 21-years has provided more than €70-million in grants to communities.