It all started in 1996.

TWN has provided resources within the community to empower women across the public and voluntary sectors, the trade unions, education and training in taking a more active and informed role within a changing Northern Ireland requiring new capacity, knowledge, skills and experience.

Throughout the years, TWN has been a part of several successful and innovative projects for women in Northern Ireland. Below are summaries of selected projects over the years that represent TWN's commitment to the community.

COIN

The aim of Coin was to increase the sense of Community between Catholic and Protestants while exploring the selected religious institutions/buildings. 30 Women took part in the cross-community sessions where they learnt about the Protestant and Catholic religions: exploring their similarities and differences, how their teachings has played into the politics of Northern Ireland and the role they play in good relations work. The training was developed to increase ecumenical attitudes (close relationships and better understandings among different church traditions). After these sessions, participants visited both Protestant and Catholic churches, where dialogue sessions where held allowing participants the opportunity to fully explore their views on each other’s religion.

CREATE

The Create project aimed to support 300 women between the ages of 16 – 24 to overcome barriers towards accessing further education. The programme offered tailored approaches to personal development and employability training including one to one support and activities over an approximate three-six month period. Some examples of these activities included incentive activities, soft skills and work skills training, pre vocational training in numeracy, literacy and computing, employability workshops. Following this the participants achieved mentoring and one to one support, and regional employer educational and liaison programmes. By developing these softer skills and having a sense of achievement young women will be encouraged to consider moving on to a training programme based on individual goals and including accredited training at level one.

The concluding aim for the young women was that they developed a strong network of support and became able to identify a progression route and be signposted to further education or employment.

Thank you to our partners for helping to deliver this service:

Finland: Citizen’s Forum
Italy: Turin Institute for the Deaf
Northern Ireland: Training for Women Network
Poland: Dom Kultury Kadr
Romania: Orizont Cultural T
The Netherlands: Hogeschool Rotterdam, School of Social Work

Eramus +

The Spaces for Intercultural Learning project aims at gaining new insights on how intercultural competences can be effectively taught and learned through arts-based and action-oriented methods. From 15 to 19 May 2017, TWN was proud to host 25 teachers and trainers from across the European Union in Belfast for a Train the Trainer programme to share and learn about one another’s methods in teaching intercultural competencies.

These workshops were a part of our Spaces for Intercultural Learning and are funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

As part of the programme, the participants received a tour of Stormont Parliament Buildings and was welcomed to Belfast by:

Rt. Hon. Arlene Foster MLA, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party
Robin Swann MLA, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
Paula Bradley MLA, Democratic Unionist Party
Claire Hanna MLA, Social Democratic and Labour Party
Cllr Mairéad O’Donnell, Sinn Féin

Framing the Future through the Past

TWN are delighted to have received funding from The Executive Office to work with 6 groups across NI; to conduct heritage and research on women who have made differences in their communities, the impact they had made, the benefits to everyone. Looking at how their lives really shaped future communities.

This is a cross-community project with:

Single identity dialogue sessions taking place
Cross-community dialogue sessions
Concluding with a showcasing conference in March 2018

The aim of the project was to progress the women on to employment or further education by building their confidence and skills.

The project targets young women who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET) and provides a selection of unique learning experiences:

Creative industry training
DJ and music courses
A residential leadership challenge experience

Gateway to Progression

Project Partners

Ballynafeigh Community Development Association (South Belfast)
Churchtown Community Association (Castlederg)
Falls Women's Centre (West Belfast)
Footprints Women's Centre (Lisburn)
Foyle Women's Information Network (Derry/Londonderry)
Kilcooley Women's Centre (North Down)
Roe Valley Education Forum (Limavady)
Short Strand Community Forum (East Belfast)
The Women's Centre (Derry/Londonderry)

The Talent Tribe

Creative industry training that encourages, inspires, and develops young people's talents and experiences to not only empower them in their adult lives but also to open them up to the wide range of careers in Theatre, Radio and on Screen.

Excentric Muzik

This beginning DJ course includes topics such as Music selection; Health and safety; Setting up equipment; Beats, bars, rhythms & phrasing; Beat matching and mixing; EFX Tricks and Scratching; Eqs and levels; Structuring a mix; and Final mix recording.

The GRIT Experience (Gerry Rogan Initiative Trust)

A week-long residential programme for young people where they participate in a range of activities including fun outdoor games and challenges as well as workshop based personal development programmes.

Gateway to Success

The project promoted women's employability through training, policy development, research, networking, and information sharing.

The Gateway to Success project was funded under the Northern Ireland European Social Fund 2007-2013.

Project Partners:

Ballynafeigh Community Development Association, South Belfast
Churchtown Community Association, Castlederg
Cookstown & District Community Association, Mid Ulster
Darkley & District Community Association, South Armagh
Falls Women's Centre, West Belfast
Fermanagh Women's Network, Enniskillen
Foyle Women's Information Network, North West
Galliagh Women's Group, Derry/Londonderry
Kilcooley Women's Centre, Bangor, North Down
Lisburn People's Support Project, Antrim/Down
Loughgiel Community Association, Ballymena, North Antrim
Short Strand Community Forum, East Belfast

Project activities:

Direct and indirect training courses
Guidance, support, and signposting
Job fairs and other events to share information
Research projects relevant to women's employability
A membership network for economically inactive women
Web-based information resources to promote women's training and signpost support and course

GSTB

The GSTB Project was funded under The Executive Office’s Central Good Relations fund (2017 – 2018). The project reached 60 young women in various areas and involved them in IFA standard football training which increased inter-community contact. The Project offered good relations training ensure all partipants where targeting areas of interest to progress engagement. These actions concluded in new friendships being established.

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