Introduction to the four lead partners

The Women's Centre's Regional Partnership (WCRP) is funded by the Department for Social Development and made up of four lead partners, namely; Women's Centre in Derry/North-West, WSN, NIRWN and WRDA. The WCRP has a strategic and co-ordinating function to increase partnership working with the community based women's organisations across Northern Ireland.

Directors (left to right): Siobhan Doherty (NIRWN), Margaret Ward (WRDA), Margaret Logue (The Women’s Centre, Derry), and Patricia Haren (WSN)

Northern Ireland Rural Women's Network (NIRWN)

NIRWN is a Northern Ireland wide network organisation and is jointly funded by DARD and DSD under the EU BSP Programme until the end of June 2008. Many years of work have been put into seeking a regional infrastructure for rural women and this Network will sit alongside three other women's organisations, WRDA, WSN and Derry Women's Centre with all four comprising a new infrastructure for the Women's Sector in line with the recommendations of the Government Review Report. NIRWN, having received 25% of their funding from DSD, are playing a vital role within the WCRP, making up one of the four lead partners, developing the strategy for the WCRP and developing and delivering on the operational plan for the Partnership.

The Women's Resource and Development Agency

The Women's Resource and Development Agency has been in existence since 1983. Originally the Women's Education Project, it became the Women's Resource and Development Agency (WRDA) in 1993.

WRDA's vision is of a society where women are confident, valued and respected and occupy visible positions of power and influence in all areas of life.

WRDA's mission as a regional organisation is to advance women's equality and participation in society by working to bring about social, political and economic change.

The Women's Centre, Derry

The Women's Centre is a feminist community education initiative. In its twenty-one years, the Women's Centre has captured the collaborative and enjoyable aspects of learning, enabling generations of women, not only to construct new learning identities but also to develop and improve many other aspects of their lives as well.

The Women's centre continues in its role as a key community development organisation in the North West region, providing and participating in a wide range of programmes, services and activities for women and women's groups in the area.

The Centre provides an in house crèche facility. This service, provided at no cost, addresses a widely recognised barrier to women's access to lifelong learning – lack of affordable childcare. The crèche has a full, comprehensive programme of activities and currently provides up to 300 places each week.

Activities

• We provide training and educational opportunities for women from the local communities.
• We provide information on a range of community and individual issues.
• We support, help and encourage other groups wishing to use our facilities.
• We offer free on-site childcare for those using the centre.
• We offer a Drop In facility encouraging women to meet their peers in an informal manner.
• We work in partnership with local training organisations and statutory organisations and network with other women's groups local, regional and cross border on a number of related issues.
  
  

The Women's Centre continues to encourage and enable approx 400 women on a weekly basis from a variety of communities and differing ways of life. The Centre aims to continue this work and more over the coming years through group work, one to one tutorials, policy participation, seminars, workshops and networking.

It is their mission to;

Promote equality of access for women by providing resources so that women can meet, learn and support each other to make choices and develop common strategies for the empowerment of women.

Women's Support Network

The Women's Support Network was first established in 1989. Since then it has grown in size and influence and has established itself as a key infrastructure organisation.

WSN's membership presently comprises of  79 organisations, this includes 58 community-based women's centres and projects, other autonomous women's projects and regional women's infrastructure groups and women's sections or projects within larger community and voluntary organisation for the community-based women's sector. There are also 21 community and voluntary organisations which have strong interest in women's issues and are therefore affiliated to the Network.

Women's Support Network promotes the autonomous organisation of women in order to achieve social, political and economic justice through providing accessible, relevant and high quality support services and resources for our membership; promoting and developing networking to enable collective action and to impact on policy and decision-making processes.

Women's Support Network is a collective feminist voice for women's organisations, providing accessible, relevant and high quality support services and resources for women's groups, centres and projects. Women's Support Network enables collective action by women's organisations to influence policy and decision-making processes that impact on women's lives.