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Location: Home > Kilcooley Community Forum 2010 > Kilcooley Forum Annual General Meeting

Kilcooley Community Forum: New Decade for Development

FORUM

16 June, 2010

Kilcooley Forum Annual General Meeting

The new pensive office bearers for Kilcooley Community Forum

Chairman’s Report

In presenting this report for 2009/10 I am mindful of all those who contribute to the community development and transformation of Kilcooley, none more so than our member groups, staff, volunteers and partner organisations with whom we closely work. However I want to begin by paying tribute to Mr Ron Eggleston, a longstanding member of the Forum who passed away during this last term. People like Ron give so much of their time and energy to help Kilcooley and without their contribution this community would not be so well advanced. Our volunteers, like Ron, are essential to the overall progress of our work and no one should underestimate the value of each of these ‘assets.’

Although the Forum office opened in 1998, Kilcooley Community Forum has actually been working in this community for over 14 years. Over this period there have been very evident changes bringing both advantage and disadvantage to our residents. Advantages like strong infrastructure and good community capacity with so much activity going on for people of all ages.

Other advantages include -

· Education opportunities provided by Kilcooley Women’s Centre

· Employment prospects and work placements through our numerous project / groups

· Environmental changes through the NIHE, DRD and DSD strategies

· Bangor Alternatives, PSNI, SEE&LB (YS) and NDBC help make Kilcooley a safer community

· A more aesthetically pleasing community through Arts Council NI projects such as Re-imaging

· Strategic approach to cross-sector partnership working, promoting effective service delivery

· Private developers investing in new-build housing

· Investing in people and valuing community involvement / participation

· Making Kilcooley regionally relevant in numerous aspects of our working progress

Some of the disadvantages include -

· Limited resources and lack of core funding

· Added pressures on already active volunteers

· Uncertainty about strategic development processes

· Lack of consultation with local communities by some statutory bodies

There is no doubt Kilcooley has made giant leaps forward and during the past year there have been significant achievements within the remit of the Forum and our member groups. None of us can rest on our laurels and think this will sustain us; we have much work to do and many more projects and initiatives to implement to bring further change to Kilcooley. We want to thank Jim Russell for the work he has carried out to date on the proposed Kilcooley Community Allotment Project. We still press toward the goal of seeing our new Multifunctional Centre established and look forward to the substantial benefits this will bring.

Kilcooley Community Forum is currently looking to the next stage of its development. We anticipate more collaborative working with present partners but also realise the need to extend our boundaries and reach a broader network of organisations and individuals who can offer expertise and commitment to help take us forward with a clear vision and fresh enthusiasm.

We celebrate the success of the Kilcooley Community Forum, brought about by the work of our staff, individual members, member groups and partners from statutory and voluntary organisations and we anticipate a successful future, in which all of us will hopefully share.

Secretary’s Report

Introduction

Over the past twelve months the work of the Forum has been subject to scrutiny by government at both regional and local level, the media and the wider general public as contentious issues have arisen that have affected this community and further afield. As we seek to address these matters very often the Forum is perceived to be a dissenter or a menace because we do not ‘toe the line.’

Our role as a community development organisation is to ensure we work to deliver the most professional services to local residents and through partnership with other agencies make certain the needs of our residents are being met, without discrimination or recrimination. Often our work brings us into conflict with others, whether that is funding bodies, locally elected representatives or agencies responsible to provide positive outcomes within our area of benefit. This does not mean we do not wish to build relationships or strengthen existing partnerships; on the contrary, we aim to build capacity and further forge our ‘working together’ if, by doing so, it means greater benefit for our organisation, our member groups and our individual residents.

Forum Business

Forum staff and volunteers provide numerous day to day services to our residents and member groups including advice and support on issues around: Housing, Environmental schemes, Work placement opportunities, Volunteering, Crime prevention and various other community activities.

Meetings

The Forum continues to meet on a monthly basis alternating between Management Committee and Full Forum gatherings. These keep our focus on the relevant issues affecting our community and enable us to know what groups / individuals are doing to address identified need. We continue to hold bi-monthly Housing Forum and quarterly Interagency Strategy meetings with the relevant statutory agencies. A database of all minutes is kept in the Forum.

New Members

This year, Kilcooley Community Forum has seen new groups formed. These include the Kilcooley Sports Forum and the Youth Cohesion Project, plus individual resident and non-resident involvement, all providing a specialist service to our community and in addition extending their remit to reach other communities. We want to see our active member groups prosper and grow and we welcome new groups or individuals coming on board with specific interests in Kilcooley.

Funding

The Forum is very grateful to the Department for Social Development for agreeing to fund our work until March 2011 and we have expressed an interest in getting a revised Letter of Offer as our original application was appraised for three years by the Department. In addition, it equally appreciates other smaller funding sources which have been provided by North Down Borough Council and South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust.

Publications

2009 /2010 saw a number of new publications being produced, distributed or available for public examination. These included promotional materials pertaining to the work of the Forum, reports on various aspects of the Forum’s community development strategy under Neighbourhood Renewal, a Project Assessment undertaken by Groundwork NI for the Kilcooley Community Allotments and a Mental Health Directory in partnership with South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust Health Development worker.

Communities of Interest

The Forum has been building links with other community groups and organisations from Ards and Downpatrick facilitated by SEUPB Peace 3 funding. It also has pro-active members on the North Down & Ards Intercommunity Forum, an information sharing group which tackles key issues affecting our communities by lobbying, holding to account and persuading agencies to work together for the good. Kilcooley Community Forum also has a number of people involved in the combined working group established to help build better community / good relations within North Down.

Conclusion

This update for 2009/2010 only scratches the surface of the multi-faceted work carried out by the Forum’s staff, member groups and volunteers. We recognise a great deal of the work of transformation for Kilcooley can only be achieved by effective partnerships and therefore we appreciate the support and assistance given to us by lead agencies and partners such as:

Arts Council NI

Citizens’ Advice Bureau

Credit Union

Dept. for Social Development

DRD (Roads Service)

Groundwork NI

Kilcooley Neighbourhood Partnership

Kilcooley Primary School

Members of the Legislative Assembly

North Down Borough Council

North Down/Ards Intercommunity Forum

Northern Ireland Housing Executive