Paula, from NIRWN, attended the Beyond Business: Journey & Wisdom from Women Entrepreneurs event in Corick House as part of Mid Ulster District Council (MUDC) Enterprise Week. The event was hosted by Lynette Fay and featured a panel of local women entrepreneurs who shared inspiring insights on balancing personal experience with business success. It also […]
The Women’s Resource and Development Agency celebrated our 42nd Annual General Meeting on the 6th of November, bringing together members, staff, and supporters to reflect on achievements, discuss challenges, and set the course for the future. Highlights from the Chair Our Management Committee Chair, Robyn Scott opened the meeting by celebrating WRDA’s enduring legacy and […]
WOMEN’STEC, Northern Ireland’s trailblazing champion for women and girls in non-traditional skills, is delighted to announce the grand opening of its brand new North West workshop and training hub at Ráth Mór Business Park on Friday, 26th September, 2025. This new workshop is set to transform opportunities for women and girls across the North West, […]
Keeping a focus on Women’s Mental Health is never going to be an easy task, women are the backbone of our society, yet they are continuously overlooked and over shadowed. Mental Health is such a sliding scale and personal battle that its almost impossible to pinpoint one particular thing that exacerbates it. Ensuring that your […]
Campaigns: Guarantee our Essentials Siobhán is part of a campaign from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Trussell Trust calling for an Essentials Guarantee within Universal Credit. The Essentials Guarantee would embed in the social security system a principle that at a minimum Universal Credit should protect people from going without essentials. You can read […]
Siobhán has responded to the draft Anti-Poverty Strategy using the results from the Toolkit engagement with women. This engagement highlighted serious concerns about the lack of new actions contained in the draft plan to address rising poverty levels in Northern Ireland. The Consortium also raised serious concerns about the lack of lived experience included in […]
This Strategy sets out the Department for Communities’ commitment to achieve better employment outcomes for disabled people, people with health conditions, and people who are neurodivergent. In 2023/24 the employment rate for disabled people in Northern Ireland was 43.4% around half of the employment rate for people without disabilities (83.7%). The difference between these two […]
Linda Dillon MLA has launched a consultation on her Private Members Bill on Breastfeeding to encourage breastfeeding in public spaces. The purpose of the Bill is to put in place stronger protections from discrimination for those breastfeeding in public places. Many people may assume that breastfeeding is already fully protected in law but the existing protections […]
Women’s Support Network Policy Worker, Siobhán Harding has started to work on the next Consortium research paper which will be on Women and Mental Health. The aim of the research is to highlight a number of areas: The problems with poor mental health in Northern Ireland. Women’s increased likelihood to experience poor mental health. The […]
Paula McAliskey represented NIRWN and our members at the NI Anti-Poverty Conference, a sector-wide call to action for a robust and impactful Anti-Poverty Strategy for Northern Ireland. The publication of the Draft Anti-Poverty Strategy in June marks an important opportunity to embed rights-based and evidence-led approaches to tackling poverty. Civic society engagement is essential to […]
