Kilcooley Community Forum: New Decade for Development

FORUM

10 June, 2010

Kilcooley Women’s Centre Showcase Their Talent

Some of the many women who received their certificates yesterday

The assembly hall was packed with women and men including, Lady Sylvia Hermon MP, Eileen Bell former Stormont Speaker, local Councillors, MLA’s and Mr Howard Keery (SEUPB) alongside representatives from numerous others statutory agencies and funding bodies milling around before the proceedings were officially opened by the Chairperson Julie Acklam. She thanked everyone for attending and highlighted some of the significant impact of the work before handing over to the Director of the Centre Alison Blayney.

Alison again thanked the many people for attending and those who helped organise the event before she spoke about the need for recognition of the high quality work and service provision offered by community education facilities within Protestant Unionist Loyalist communities. She said there should be no divide when it comes to education, and parity of esteem should be shown by the funding bodies.

The guest speaker was Mr Billy Hutchinson from Mount Vernon Community Development office who congratulated the Women’s Centre for the excellent work they do and also extended his congratulations to all who would be graduating at the event. Billy spoke from personal experience about the need for a ‘valuing’ of education to be adopted within Protestant working class communities. He said the lack of this meant our children are missing out on so much. The answer was not just about throwing money into areas to try to keep people happy or quiet, it was about getting people to think differently and change their outlook on education. Billy raised the point that if we took a young child from Kilcooley and placed them in a middle class home they would flourish as much as any other because children are not born stupid, it is about investing in them at a young age and encouraging a love for learning so that they can become ‘rounded children.’

Tutors were then invited by Carol Savage (Education Manager) to hand out certificates to the many people who completed courses over the past year. Each class was given a great round of applause as they went forward to collect their well earned accolades.

Howard Keery Director of Joint Technical Secretariat (SEUPB) in his speech commended the work of Kilcooley Women’s Centre and said, “Protestant Unionist Loyalist communities need investment to address the education inequalities.” He agreed with Billy Hutchinson’s view for more value to be placed on education and education provision.

Other speakers also carried forward the same theme and it was certainly hoped that those in attendance who could make a difference would take this on board.

At the event over 260 women (and a few men) picked up 600 certificates between them for subjects ranging from basic Maths and English to A level’s from Beginners IT to ECDL. The courses also included Crafts, British and Irish History and numerous other programmes.

The whole event was organised by the Education Manager Carol Savage and the team of staff and volunteers at Kilcooley Women’s Centre.

Kilcooley Community Forum would like to congratulate everyone who received certificates and completed their course. Well done to all.

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