Successful projects - 2nd call

List of organisations which were successful in the second call for applications under the Equal Community Initiative

Employability Theme

Cresco Trust – Key project

The project has three main objectives:

Assist integration into employment for those that are hard to employ
Enhance the progression of individuals who are in low paid employment but lack the necessary skills to help them integrate and develop their potential
Engage employers, who have the capacity to offer employment

Transnational Partners: Poland, Republic of Ireland and Spain

Disability Action – Diversity Works project

The aim of this Development Partnership is to examine the different forms of discrimination relating to men, women, black, ethnic minority communities, people with disabilities, young people, old people, and carers and the lesbian/gay/bisexual and the transgendered community.

Transnational Partners: Czech Republic and Portugal

Fermanagh College – South West Learning Partnership

The purpose of the development partnership is to examine ways of facilitating access and overcoming barriers to employment for those who are homebound, in particular those with caring responsibilities and the disabled.

Transnational Partners: Hungary, Italy and Slovak Republic

Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders
(NIACRO) – Reach Out programme

The aim of the Reachout programme is to:

Effect labour market entry of those with a history of custody
To impact on mainstream policy
To influence policy makers in the targeting of resources.
A further aim is to build a second stage employability model by constructing an interface between the employability measures pioneered by the Personal Progression System project under the first Equal Call currently mainstreamed by the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the needs of employers with hard to fill vacancies.

Transnational Partners: Latvia and Republic of Ireland

North Belfast Partnership Board – Employability Access programme

The purpose of the Development Partnership is to pilot and evaluate how human resource policy and practices in local health trusts and local government can be developed to increase access to jobs, within these sectors, for people who are furthest from the labour market.

Transnational Partners: Italy, Republic of Ireland and Spain

Northern Ireland Union of Supported Employment – Supported Employment in Action (SEA) project

This Development Partnership aims to address the barriers faced by people with disabilities. Thus the Development Partnership will bring together a partnership of key stakeholders and policy makers to strategically review the existing social and economic policies and practices relating to people with disabilities.

Transnational Partners: Czech Republic, France and Netherlands

Orchardville Society – Employment for Autism project

The Development Partnership will bring together key stakeholders in the statutory and voluntary sector in the Greater Belfast Area. They will work alongside people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder to develop a programme of support and training to enable those with the disorder to tackle the specific barriers they face in accessing employment.

Transnational Partners: France and Netherlands

Simon Community – Engage project

The Development Partnership will link up with relevant partners in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors to examine how the employment needs of the homeless people can be best addressed and to develop a sustainable model of best practice for promoting pathways to employment and social inclusion of homeless people.

Transnational Partners: Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands and Sweden

Equal opportunities theme

Action for Real Change – Promoting Opportunities for Inclusion in Social Care Employment (POISE) project

The partnership aims to explore staff recruitment and retention issues in the care sector in Northern Ireland focussing initially on the North Down and Ards / North and West Belfast areas with a view to mainstreaming its findings throughout Northern Ireland.

Transnational Partners: Hungary, Italy and Spain

Aspire Micro Loans – Women in Rural Areas and Investment in Self Employment (WRAISE) project

The purpose of the Development Partnership is to develop an innovative methodology for supporting women in rural areas to start and run their own businesses successfully. The partnership will use rural Credit Unions as a base to form peer support groups for these women. The peer group structure will empower women to access mentoring, training and finance for flexible self-employment and help to combat attitudes that inhibit their entry into and progress within self employment.

Transnational Partners: France and Slovak Republic

Belfast City Council – Women Into Non-traditional Sectors (WINS) project

The project specifically aims to:

Undertake research to identify means to combat attitudes that inhibit women’s entry to and progression within partner organisations,
Provide a bespoke empowerment programme for 2 cohorts of 20 women as a means of developing employability,
Provide an employment taster for 40 women. The results of this will help support the integration of women into non-traditional employment through the adoption of new working practices
Influence policy at local, national and European level through the dissemination of results.

Transnational Partners: Germany, Republic of Ireland and Netherlands

Gingerbread Northern Ireland – Possibilities project

The Development Partnership objectives will be:

To identify the obstacles which inhibit lone parent entry into the labour market and lead to economic inactivity
To review current interventions aimed at improving lone parents access to employment and enhancing employability
To identify gaps in provision and make recommendations for the development of appropriate responses
To demonstrate ways in which existing interventions can become more effective through additionality, mainstreaming and interagency work
To highlight existing models of good practice and pilot an innovative model of community based intervention which can be replicated
To disseminate and recommend the replication and mainstreaming of effective policy and practice domestically, transnationally and on a cross border basis.

Transnational Partners: Italy, Lithuania, Malta and Spain

Triax Taskforce – Heliosp project

The Helios Development Partnership has three objectives:

To develop with participants and trainers a review of training practice and the barriers women experience attempting entry into 'non-traditional trades';
To devise an awareness programme for construction trades’ tutors involved in training women;
To work with the Department for Employment and Learning to review government policies regarding apprenticeship workplace requirements.

Transnational Partners: France