nicva

‘Women lose out in Northern Ireland’

Paul Gosling on May 24, 2019, 7:00 am

| Readers 934

More must be done in Northern Ireland to make society open for women and for minorities, argues Alexandra De La Torre, the co-ordinator for NICVA of the Next Chapter, which has the objective of strengthening women’s engagement in civic society and participation in society. Alexandra is interviewed in the latest Forward Together podcast. “I think it is fundamental for civil society to create spaces where there is room for everyone,” she says. “Spaces that are inclusive for women, inclusive for …

Big Ideas: Festival of Economics round-up

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 12, 2016, 11:05 pm

| Readers 515

The four year Centre for Economic Empowerment project at NICVA is nearing its conclusion but the full attendance at today’s event can be taken as a sign of the capacity that has been built in the community and voluntary sector around economic awareness and understanding.

Big Ideas: Festival of Economics – coming up on Friday 12 August

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 8, 2016, 9:05 am

| Readers 231

BIG IDEAS – a day long festival of economics will be hosted by NICVA’s Centre for Economic Empowerment on Friday 12 August. Prof Steve Keen will be joined by a host of other speakers – and there’s room for your ideas too if you get in touch with the organisers.

Innovation for Public Good conference – what would unlock public sector innovation?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 10, 2015, 8:20 pm

| Readers 784

LISTEN BACK to keynote speeches from this afternoon’s conference on Innovation For Public Good conference at NICVA, with NESTA’s Geoff Mulgan.

Using data for public good – launch of Detail Data

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 29, 2015, 12:33 pm

| Readers 524

NICVA’s relationship with investigative journalism website The Detail began with the reporting on the umbrella organisation’s research paper on The Impact of Welfare Reform on Northern Ireland. Lisa McElherron said she was thrilled to launch the Detail Data project. NICVA had been keen (1) to better tell the stories of the sector they represent; (2) to forge better links into the media to tell those stories; and (3) to harness the thirst for public data and to ultimately deliver better …

Lisa McElherron: Why Northern Ireland needs a living wage

Soapbox on September 15, 2014, 4:00 pm

| Readers 704

NICVA has recently published some important research into the benefits of introducing a minimum wage in Northern Ireland. Writing for Slugger O’Toole, NICVA’s Head of Public Affairs, Lisa McElherron makes the case for its introduction Fifteen years ago the New Labour government introduced the National Minimum Wage (NMW). Critics vehemently argued that it would impose excessive costs on employers, cause firms to fail, and create unemployment. Today it is accepted that businesses adapted and the dire consequences predicted failed to …

What would be your single economic response to the issue of working poverty? #cgeni

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 28, 2014, 10:31 pm

| Readers 146

This was one of the questions asked at this morning’s NICVA Centre for Economic Empowerment conference on Generation X and Working Poverty. Working households now make up the majority of those in poverty. Low pay, the rise of part-time and temporary working, high costs of housing and childcare all contribute to the growth. But what practically can government or organisations or individuals do? 26% of NI employees are paid below the Living Wage (£7.45/hour). This is the highest proportion in …

Bonnie Greer: We have to get young people as creators of the solutions #cgeni

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 2, 2014, 9:00 am

| Readers 90

NICVA’s Centre for Economic Empowerment ran the first of three half day conferences on Friday under the banner of Creating the Good Economy For Life with a focus on Generation Y (people born after 1979). Generation X and the Baby Boomers will get their turn later in the year. NICVA CEE wanted the conference to cover: Are the economic difficulties of youth simply a consequence of the recent downturn, which will improve as the economy picks up? Or are the …

Hutton: the future in Belfast MUST be flexible

Mick Fealty on November 10, 2011, 3:01 pm

| Readers 1

We’ll be coming back to the Creating a Good Economy conference several times over the next few days… Between Alan, Geoff and Ivor we’ve a shed load of content to share. There was lots of good stuff. Two things stand out: one Arlene’s insistence that the late arrival of the programme for government would have an negliable effect on confidence in Northern Ireland; and two Will Hutton, for many years the imaginative genius behind the Work Foundation, bluff call to …

Picamp: Challenging and new conversations…

Mick Fealty on November 30, 2010, 4:31 pm

| Readers 11

So what was PIcamp all about? Well the idea behind is pretty straightforward. It’s based on the understanding that meaningful change happens iteratively, in small steps and not through large scale revolutions. We began this year’s events in Edinburgh, because one of the things that Scotland and Northern Ireland share is a lack of capacity with parties and government to come up with new ideas to deal with new problems. The internet may not be able supply the answers to …

Political Innovation: Prepping the conversation…

Mick Fealty on November 17, 2010, 11:11 am

| Readers 1

As I noted last night, Saturday’s Political Innovation event at NICVA is about developing ideas. There will be a few set piece session throughout the day, but the rest of the agenda will be decided on the morning. Our new user voice site proved a real boon in Edinburgh teasing out what subjects had popular support before the main event itself. For Belfast we have a lot of votes for inventing a ‘new non sectarian left’ project (in two different …

Political Innovation in Belfast: New ideas for old problems

Mick Fealty on November 8, 2010, 3:23 pm

| Readers 19

This Saturday we have over 80 people booked up to come to the Political Innovation event in Edinburgh at the weekend, with the topics of conversation being shaped up at our uservoice site. The week afterwards (20th November) we’re convening at NICVA for the Belfast event (book your place here). In both cases the political context is similar. There are important elections coming in May for the Assembly and the local councils. At the moment the top three conversations for …

Mark Townley – con artist with an extensive portfolio

Blank on August 18, 2010, 9:28 pm

| Readers 200

At the start of August NIVCA warned community/voluntary/charity groups of potential difficulties that could arise if they dealt with Mark Townley of NTF. As the cached link shows NTF displayed Social Enterprise Coalition, Give with Confidence, ICO, Learn Direct and DEL logos on their website so could easily have been accepted as an organisation with integrity. NICVA is advising voluntary and community organisations and sports clubs not to hand over any money to NTF or to their Director Mark Townley, …