Working in the Community - Margaret Bonner HEC
It's been another busy few months!
Hello Hello! My name is Margaret and I am the Health Equalities Coordinator with The Churches Trust. I have been in this role for 9 months now and during this time I have been involved in delivering Community Education programmes for women and men across Derry & Donegal alongside promoting and assisting in the running of our Charity Shop on Spencer Road and our Social Supermarket “The Pantry Project”. I am going to give you a bit more information about some of the brilliant programmes I am involved with.
Developing Women in The Community
This programme is funded by DfC and aims to tackle isolation and foster cross community relationships as well as empowering women to get more involved in their community. We meet fortnightly at three different locations – our office at the Diamond, our office on the Limavady Road and in Strabane. The 2024/ 2025 programme has just finished and we’re currently looking for new participants for the new programme which will run until March 2027.
The Developing Women in the Community programme is designed to inspire and empower women across the Derry and Strabane District Council area and is funded by the Department for Communities. DWC offers accredited training, leadership development, and practical support in areas such as mental health, family support, and community engagement.
The previous participants gained an OCN Level 1 in Community Development and an OCN Level 3 in Understanding ACE’s. They enjoyed lots of opportunities to socialise including day trips. They also came together to organise and run two fantastic Christmas quizzes for their communities which were both huge successes!
TrACE to Transform
TrACE to Transform is a 10-week course which Laura, our Community Relations Manager, and I run with women across Derry and Donegal whilst our youth team run a similar programme with young people. The programme looks at human development, empathy, resilience and ACEs. It encourages people to look at family and community life from a trauma informed perspective. It allows for personal reflection as well as group work and culminates in an intergenerational workshop bringing the youth and adult participants together to share their perspectives and learn from each other and finally, a learning conference. The 2024/25 programme finishes this month and we are delighted to let you know that we have secured funding to run the programme again in Autumn/ Winter 2025. If you would like to be involved, please get in contact!
tHIS Matters
tHIS Matters is a men’s programme running across Derry & Donegal, with content very similar to TrACE to Transform. We are currently running 3 groups – Letterkenny, Carndonagh and Waterside. This year is a pilot programme funded by DfA and has had great uptake across the two border counties. The programme consists of 8 weeks of learning with each group in their respective location followed by a shared learning experience and a study trip bringing all three groups together. The men met for the first time this week at our TrACE to Transform learning conference. We will bring them together again in July and August as part of the programme and hopefully help create lasting connections across the groups.
The Pantry Project
Food insecurity is an ongoing concern in Derry, with numbers still rising since the cost of living crisis came about. We offer emergency food support through community partners and also offer an eight-week social supermarket programme. This eight-week programme offers community members the opportunity to purchase groceries at a low cost, helping to tackle food poverty and redirect any income towards other bills or necessities. During the eight weeks, we will have conversations and get to know the clients allowing us to understand their needs and support or signpost to other services where possible. Donations for the social supermarket come from across all communities and without these we would not be able to offer either of these services.
The Churches Trust Charity Shop
Our charity shop, based on Spencer Road, is an extension of the community education work we carry out. It is a hub for the community as well as a social enterprise project – meaning that we provide employment for local people and any profits are put straight back into the charity through our other services. We are currently looking for volunteers for the charity shop – please get in contact if this is something you feel you would be interested in. We have recently been making some changes to the charity shop including redecorating to brighten the place up and installing a card machine to make shopping more accessible to all. We are particularly interested in volunteers who could help develop an online platform for us as we know this is very much a more convenient method for shopping today.
If you are interested in any of the programmes I’ve discussed, or becoming a volunteer please feel free to contact me directly on margaretbonner@thechurchestrust.org.uk for more information.
The Churches Trust
