Click the link to see our latest e bulletin:  November EBulletin 2009

Sligo County Community Forum is inviting people involved in the community and voluntary sector to join local networks.  The purpose of the networks will be to bring groups together working at a local level to share information and find out where they could collaborate on projects.  A crucial role for each of the networks will be to nominate representatives to go forward onto the County Community Forum early next year. 

The County Community Forum is putting energy into setting up local networks, to ensure that Forum Representatives are accountable to the community and voluntary sector in each of their respective ‘Local Electoral Areas’.  In March next year 4 representatives will be nominated from each of the Local Electoral Areas to bring forward the views of the community and voluntary sector on the County Community Forum.  These participants will then have the opportunity to represent the views of the community and voluntary forum on other county wide and regional bodies, and on local authority structures. 

We are encouraging everyone involved in the community and voluntary sector in each of the Local Electoral Areas to attend an open evening.  At the event we will explain about the Forum and look at how the establishment of a network could benefit the local area.  Each of the meetings will be facilitated by an independent facilitator. 

 Come along to the meeting in your area… 

Our October E-Bulletin is now available, click the following link october-e-bulletin-09

Sligo County Community Forum, this week, discussed the devastating impact that the proposals named in the ‘Snip’ report would have on the community sector in the county if implemented.  During the time of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ community projects were established in areas of most need and high levels of disadvantage.  If anything, in the current recession, the needs of these communities will become even greater.  The cuts proposed in the Mc Carthy report, if implemented, will remove the community infrastructure that has been developed for years, on the back of voluntary effort …. read more ..forum-reaction-to-the-snip-report

Every month Sligo Forum has more requests to access their monthly E-Bulletin.  If you are a community group based in Sligo, this E Bulletin could be of use to you!  Let us know if you want to be included on the list!

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august-e-bulletin

On September 24th the Sligo County Forum is hosting an event to launch this new website.  Forum chairperson Margaret Conlon said ” We just wanted to have a launch to get word about the website ‘out there’.  It is very important to the forum that the community and voluntary sector in County Sligo know what we are doing and that they can also influence our agenda”.  The website is going to be launched by Rita Mc Nulty, Director of Community and Enterprise.

Sligo County Community Forum are delighted to announce that they will be undertaking a ‘diversity training’ project which has been awarded by the Sligo Peace and Reconciliation Partnership and the Special EU Programmes Body.  The chairperson of the forum today said “we are very pleased to have this opportunity to deliver diversity training within the county … the Forum have a stated objective to promote equality and inclusion and this will be a great way to help us to fulfill that objective”.  A range of events are being planned which can be seen on our diversity training page.

Over May, June and July Sligo Forum hosted a number of training events for the community sector around Sligo.  On average 10 people attended each of the four events in leadership training, community profiling, presentation skills and ‘doing funding applications’.  Overall the feedback gathered from the evaluation sheets was very positive, with the vast majority of people rating the training an 8 or more out of ten.  Many commented that they gained good skills and knowledge from the training and that they would be applying their knowledge within their own community setting.  The training was delivered by Claire Galligan.

In June 2009, Nick Nixon from the Carers Association gave a presentation to forum members outlining the supports and challenges facing carers in County Sligo.  The carers association run a monthly support group and offer training to Carers in County Sligo.  As well as this, the carers association advocate for carers and try to influence government policy to provide adequate support to carers in our society. 

Nick Nixon with committee members at the June Meeting

Margaret Conlon, Chaiperson, and Brian Crummy participating in training

During May 2009 Sligo County Community Forum members took part in ‘representatives training’ to improve the way that they represent the community sector in the county.  The training was delivered by Claire Galligan and all in attendance felt that they gained from the experience.  Through the training process forum members identified that they want to develop a clear strategy for bringing through community issues so that they can maximise their impact.  For the training, guidelines for representatives were developed and forum members said that they would like to implement these guidelines for their committee.  Click this link to see the guidelines:  guidelines-for-fulfilling-your-representational-role