Minister for Justice Helen McEntee TD has launched a new All Island Community Safety Network. The project is being funded through the Community Safety Innovation Fund, which seeks to reinvest seized proceeds of crime directly back into projects to improve community safety.
The Network will offer communities an opportunity to hear first-hand about the successes of other groups across the entire island and offer them the chance to share their own examples of effective collaborative community safety projects that might be mirrored elsewhere.
Minister McEntee said, “Community safety is about people being safe and feeling safe in their communities. Local communities, key workers in the area and local representatives are often best placed to know and identify issues that will improve community safety in their areas. But learning from what has worked in other communities is also important, so that best practice can be mainstreamed. This all-island network will allow statutory and community partners to hear about examples of effective collaborative community safety projects and to develop better cross-border relationships to enhance community safety across the island of Ireland.”
Martina Maloney (Chair, Longford Community Safety Partnership) speaking at the launch commented, “The high numbers of attendees at Beyond Borders, coupled with the very positive feedback we received from attendees showed us that there is a desire for more opportunities to share learning and gain insights into best practice in Community Safety across the island of Ireland. Indeed a number of community safety projects emerged from the event, including the delivery of Kids’ Courts by Longford Community Safety Partnership alongside An Garda Síochána and local primary schools; and a collaborative youth drug prevention programme delivered by Foróige and Youth Work Ireland Louth in Drogheda”.
The first event, focusing on policy and practice relating to Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence is being hosted by Drogheda Implementation Board on Tuesday 12th March 2024. Policymakers and practitioners from across Ireland will be in attendance. Inquiries relating to this event should be directed to Drogheda Implementation Board at [email protected]
(Source: Gov.ie)
