Dear Editor
On behalf of the voluntary management committee of Armagh Confederation of Voluntary Groups, I want to thank you for the publicity that you have given the Confederation and its 220 member groups since our launch in 1997.
We are, as everyone knows, entering a period of recession in which public resources have to be used very carefully. The best possible use of public funds in such circumstances is to promote community self-reliance, self-help initiatives and capacity building measures, and these aims have always been the first focus of the Confederation. Throughout its eleven years of existence, the Confederation has generated hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding for community-led initiatives, has trained hundreds of community leaders and other volunteers, has helped to create many jobs, and has spread best practice and technical expertise across the community and voluntary sector in Armagh City and District.
This work could not have happened without the necessary investment. The Confederation has always been dependent on public investment for much of its income, and with the help of a representative, cross-community management board it has repaid that investment in full and with generous interest. We want to express our special thanks to our funders including the EU Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation, another European fund for Building Sustainable Prosperity, the National Lottery, and in the last two years the Department for Social Development. The Confederation has also received a quite useful amount of funding from the local Health and Social Services Trust, and a very small amount, in return for specific work done, from Armagh City and District Council.
The role of the local Council in relation to community based organisations has been, shall we say, mixed; but in allowing the Confederation to go under because of an annual shortfall that is less than the cost of the sculptures that now grace our streets, the Council has evidently decided that it knows best how to preserve the future of our city and district. The Committee has no doubt that those throughout the district who are associated with one or more of the 220 organisations that have benefited from the Confederation's services will know how to show their appreciation of the commitment of the Council to the community and voluntary sector. When the next elections come round, they will ask their candidates what they did, and what they will do, to sustain the community sector in our area.
Anyone who would have visited our offices in College Street for informal and expert advice or services relating to grants, other funding, fundraising work, community activism, committee formation, networking, charitable status, committee training, poster design, lotteries, photocopying, printing and publishing, networking, child protection, or any of the huge number of other subjects addressed by our expert staff should not contact our office, which will be closed to the public from 31 March 2009. They should instead direct their enquiry to the community services function of Armagh City and District Council, tel. (028)37529600. On behalf of the management committee, and as a former member of staff, I express thanks to all those involved.
In closing, I must, on behalf of the management committee but also on behalf of the vast number of local groups whom they have helped, offer thanks to the staff of Armagh Confederation of Voluntary Groups, who become redundant at the end of March. Over the years our staff have done their very best to promote and assist community development throughout the district. We hope that the Community Services function of Armagh City and District Council will be ready to respond to the needs that the Confederation has met at much less expense than the public sector could have managed over the past 11 years.
Yours
Ciarán Ó Maoláin
Chair, Armagh Confederation of Voluntary Groups
