Background

The Women's Centres Regional Infrastructure Partnership (WCRP) is a newly emerging Partnership of four lead regional and sub regional women's organisations linking with fourteen frontline women's organisations across Northern Ireland. This new partnership has emerged from the report of the review group on women's organisations providing support and services to disadvantaged areas.

The four key lead partners of the Partnership are the Women's Resource and Development Agency, Women's Support Network, Northern Ireland Rural Women's Network and The Women's Centre, Derry. The fourteen Women's Centres are spread across Northern Ireland with seven from the Greater Belfast and Lisburn area, four in the North West and three in Dungannon, Magherafelt and Craigavon. Together the WCRP will seek to develop and strengthen a regional infrastructure which will support community based women's organisations across Northern Ireland.

There are six aims to the Partnership encouraging collaborative and strategic work on key areas such as influencing policy, identifying needs and gaps in relation to training, education and childcare services, improving communication on good practice and lessons learnt across the sector, sourcing potential sources of funding, etc

The WCRP will tackle women's inequality and disadvantage and support community development in the most marginalised and disadvantaged communities and work for policy change. The principles of inter dependence, co-operation, participation, representation and good practice will be at the heart of the partnership's work.