Four Donegal projects have received just over €1 million in International Fund for Ireland (IFI) funding to deliver peace and reconciliation initiatives.
They are €497,860 for the Rio Ferdinand Foundation (Lead), Inishowen Development Partnership (€203,711 ), Politics in Action/Loreto community School, Milford (€178,128) and Donegal Youth Services (€141,882).
The funding enables peace building efforts within some of the most marginalised communities who continue to live with the long-term impact of The Troubles.
“The latest allocations will offer critical support at a grassroots level as many face the realities of austerity cuts and increasing polarisation within communities,” an IFI spokesperson said.
Funding has been awarded across the Peace Impact Programme (PIP), Personal Youth Development Programme (PYDP) and Communities in Partnership Programme (CIPP).
Donegal Youth Services is supported for 16 months to deliver the ‘U.P. (Unlocking My Potential) Project’. They will work with 16 at-risk young people not in employment, education, or training in the Letterkenny area. Participants will receive personal development and good relations training, skills and social development and education and employability development.
Loreto Community School in Milford will work with lead partner Politics in Action to deliver a 16 month cross-border ‘Poreto for Progression Project’, to extend and expand on the work already established in the current project by supporting the development of even deeper links with Portadown College, and more broadly the two towns of Milford and Portadown.
Rio Ferdinand Foundation will use IFI funding for 24 months to extend and expand the cross-border, cross-community ‘Beyond the Ball Project’ in Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal, and Louth in Ireland and Fermanagh, Derry City and Belfast in Northern Ireland. The project aim is to foster reconciliation in a unique, fully participative, meaningful and inclusive way through the neutral vehicle of sport and football.
Inishowen Development Partnership, lead partner, will work for 16 months for the ‘Gateway Soccer Connections Project’, partnering with Limavady United Football Club and Finn Harps Football Club. The programme will use soccer as a means of connecting communities north and south through the universality of soccer as a sport.
IFI Chair Paddy Harte (main pic), from Raphoe, says the support is vital in the current climate. “Projects are working against an incredibly challenging backdrop with recent funding cuts across the community sector and ongoing political instability both threatening to undo the progress that has been made in recent times,” he said.
“Communities are struggling with identity and culture issues alongside the legacy of The Troubles. Unfortunately, this vacuum provides an opportunity for paramilitary influence, recruitment of young people and anti-social behaviour.
The IFI was set up by the British and Irish Governments as an independent international organisation in 1986. It delivers a range of peace and reconciliation initiatives across Northern Ireland and the southern border counties. It currently supports a total of 50 projects in Northern Ireland and 23 in the southern border counties.
The IFI’s International donors include the British and Irish Governments, Government of the United States of America, European Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
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