€400,000 awarded to projects to advance Access to Justice and Rights and to promote the Eradication of Ableism, Ageism, Racism, Sexism, Homophobia and Transphobia
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has today announced the 30 organisations to be awarded a total of €400,000 in funding for projects under its Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme 2023-24.
The 2023-24 Grants Scheme’s themes are informed by the Commission’s strategic priorities set out in its Strategy Statement 2022-24. This year the Grants Scheme supported projects under the following strands.
- Strand A: Advancing Access to Justice and Rights
- Strand B: Promoting the Eradication of Ableism, Ageism, Racism, Sexism, Homophobia and Transphobia
This year, projects were awarded for general grants up to €20,000 and for smaller grants up to €6,000. The scheme was open to civil society organisations working to promote human rights and equality and trade unions, as well as groups representing communities addressing poverty and social exclusion or communities of interest protected under the 9 equality grounds.
We look forward to these projects and are confident that the outcomes will inform our future work.
Chief Commissioner Sinéad Gibney said:
“The Human Rights and Equality Grant Scheme is part of our initiative to support and empower communities and organisations to tackle important rights-based issues, with those who are most affected.”
Access to justice and protection from discrimination in all its forms is central to a healthy functioning democracy.”
“We look forward to seeing the outcomes of empowering those who face the greatest barriers to justice to understand and claim their rights, through these projects, with the shared aim of creating a more inclusive society for all of us.”
ENDS/
For further information, please contact:
Sarah Clarkin, IHREC Communications Manager,
01 852 9641 / 087 468 7760
sarah.clarkin@ihrec.ie
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Editor’s Note
The IHREC Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme 2023-2024
The Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme is part of the Commission’s statutory power to provide grants to promote human rights and equality under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.
The full list of organisations receiving the Human Rights and Equality Grants Scheme 2023-24 are:
| Organisation | Project Title | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Mercy Law Resource Centre | Access to Justice and Rights for Long-term Homeless Children and their Families. | The aim of this project is to carry out qualitative research to capture the lived experience of children and families, including Traveller and Roma families, in emergency homeless accommodation and the effects of long-term homelessness on children in these families. It will also produce evidence-based practical recommendations on how to improve access to justice and the vindication of the rights of these children and their families. |
| EPIC - Empowering People in Care | Experiences of state care amongst children and young people who have sought international protection: A qualitative study. | The aim of this project is to carry out qualitative research of the specific challenges faced by children who have experience of the care system and young people who have sought international protection in Ireland. The objective will be to analyse whether their experiences reflect their rights under the UNCRC and the Refugee Convention and to produce a set of policy recommendations. |
| European Anti-Poverty Network (Community Platform) | Civil Society Submission to UN International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights fourth periodic report of Ireland. | The aim of this project is to prepare a report from the Community Platform on economic, social and cultural rights issues in Ireland with a set of recommendations and submit it to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in advance of Irelands examination on the extent to which it is meeting its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This report aims to improve access to these rights while creating awareness and building experience in using such human rights frameworks and reporting processes as a means of bringing about positive change. |
| Oxfam Ireland Partner: Irish Refugee Council |
Activists and Advocates: Workshops for Change | The aim of this project is to share knowledge, skills and experiences to enhance the advocacy capacity of refugee-led groups and people who have moved to Ireland to access justice by influencing international protection policy and engaging with public bodies to shape legislation, policy, practice and services in the area of migration and asylum policy. This project also aims to build better relationships and a deeper understanding of each other's work so that we can be a stronger force working together for the rights and wellbeing of migrants, refugees and people seeking protection, and against oppression and inequality. |
| Family Carers Ireland | CarerAid: Supporting Family Carers through commencement of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 | The aim of this project is to provide legal support to a pilot group of carers to empower them as rights-holders and supporters of people with disabilities, to navigate the new Decision Making Representative (DMR) application process in a timely and supported manner, and increase awareness of the Assisted Decision-Making Act amongst carers and to extract the learning from those cases and support the development of a template that other carers can use to apply to be a DMR. |
| Migrant Rights Centre Ireland | Increase equality and reduce risk by promoting human rights compliant pathways for safe and regular migration | The aim of this project is to increase the evidence base in order to better advocate for changes in legislation and policy, which will establish or improve human rights compliant pathways for safe and regular migration in order to reduce risks and to ensure equality and justice. This project will raise awareness of positive and innovative immigration pathways (e.g. innovative schemes that enable less qualified people to move for work; positive examples of progression from short term permissions; and clearer entitlement to family reunification). By showcasing good practices, we plan to raise awareness, inform debate, advocate for reform and better practice. |
| RADE | Create Your Rights | The aim of this project is to encourage critical reflection about the issue of rights and to empower people with experience of addiction to self-advocate more strongly in the future, through a series of creative workshops. The project also aims to create awareness amongst the wider public by publishing selected creative work completed in the workshops. This will include a book of creative writing and illustrations on human rights themes which participants will present alongside an open panel discussion in the form of a public event. |
| Longford Traveller Healthcare Project Longford Community Resources Partners: Irish Network Against Racism and Community Action Network |
Building advocacy capacity and advancing the rights of minority ethnic community leaders | The aim of this project is to build the leadership and training capacity of Traveller, Roma, Migrant and Minority Rights-holders in the Longford area to understand their human and protective Equality legislation. This will include how to vindicate them, linking them to addressing individual, institutional and structural racism and discrimination. The training will be supported by INAR's Minority Ethnic Leaders and participants will act as multipliers in their communities. |
| Bohemians Football Club Partner: Environmental Justice Centre at Community Law and Mediation |
Football Empowering Local Environmental Justice Champions | The aim of this project is to engage communities in shaping the development and dissemination of educational materials to raise awareness of environmental justice, rights, and access to those rights for the members and fans of Bohemian Football Club and the surrounding communities. These materials will enable these local communities to understand how to participate in environmental decisions that affect them and can seek accountability when environmental obligations are not met. The resources will connect environmental and climate justice with the day-to-day issues people experience and to resonate with audiences who are not yet environmentally engaged. |
| Doras | Access to Justice for International Protection Applicants (IPAs): Understanding their experiences with the criminal justice system in Ireland | The aim of this project, using participatory and peer-led research, is to provide an evidence-base that captures an understanding of the experience of the criminal justice system of international protection applicants who have been victims of crime. We aim to develop a set of practical recommendations for change and to engage duty-bearers in the criminal justice system on the reports findings. |
| UISCE | Agency, Access, and Solutions: A living experience analysis of how to identify and address current gaps in equity of service provision in homeless accommodation. | The aim of this project is to develop the leadership capacity of people experiencing substance use disorder who are currently facing great barriers in accessing their rights within emergency homeless accommodation. This participatory peer led process will allow for people to understand their rights and strengthen their ability to share this knowledge, engage with relevant stakeholders and become actors for change by advocating for access to justice and rights within the sector. Through a dialogue process between rights holders and duty bearers, the project aims to will build a whole system responsibility for the progressive realisation of these rights. |
| Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) | Know Your Rights: Access to Justice and Rights for People in Prison | The aim of this project is to organise a conference to build understanding of prisoners rights among those working to support prisoners, in particular migrant and ethnic minority prisoners. We aim to build capacity to better advocate for the vindication of these rights, as well as to more widely disseminate the Prisoners Know Your Rights booklet to increase further awareness and understanding. |
| Open Doors Initiative | Fresh Start An Employer Support Service Toolkit & Training | The aim of this project is to develop an Employer Tool-kit and deliver training to dispel the myths and create awareness among employers, informed by the lived experience of those impacted by systemic barriers, of the benefits of hiring people with past convictions. Through awareness raising and training work with employers to remove these obstacles and actively hire and retain people, providing them with a fresh start. |
| National Advocacy Council of Brothers of Charity Services Ireland | Rights Awareness Training Programme Fully Inclusive and Accessible. | The aim of this project, led by the Advocates on the National Advocacy Council, is to develop an accessible training programme including the development of videos to build the capacity and confidence of people with intellectual disabilities on their rights and how to advocate for and exercise them. |
| National Womens Council | Auto-enrolment from a care and gender-based lens | The aim of this project is to conduct research to assess the gendered impact of implementing auto-enrolment in the new retirement savings scheme, particularly in exacerbating inequalities between unpaid carers and paid workers. The project also proposes reforms that both ensure income adequacy of all workers in old age, particularly women, while also recognising the contribution of unpaid care work. In so doing, it attempts to overcome institutional discrimination against unpaid care workers, the majority of whom are women. |
| Waterford Integration Services | Understanding and Responding to Hate and Extremism in our Communities | The aim of this project is provide solution focused regional training workshops (with a diversity and intersectional focus) in Waterford and the South East. This will build the capacity of grassroots communities, e.g. ethnic led groups, the LGBTI+ sector and economic and socially challenged communities, as well as community leaders and elected representatives to counter efforts to create division and hate in communities who are already challenged in terms of poverty, lack of opportunity, the rising cost of living and accommodation crisis. The project will also develop resource packs tailored for Waterford and the South East, which can act as a model for other communities. |
| Project Arts Centre Partner: Dublin Theatre of the Deaf |
Challenging Ableism towards the Deaf Community in the Arts | The aim of this project is to promote the eradication of ableism through public understanding, raising awareness, and encouraging crucial dialogue around the barriers for the Deaf community in accessing and participating in the arts. We aim to create practical change through training, artistic support, ongoing engagement with the Dublin Theatre of the Deaf and the presentation of ambitious new works. The project will also create visibility for the Deaf community through a series of events /residencies at the Project Arts Centre - including ISL interpreted for events and performances; and increasing the use of ISL across all areas of Project Arts Centre programme. The development of this project was informed by an extensive consultation process that led to the development of the Project Arts Centres, Equality, Inclusion and Diversity Strategy. |
| Belong To LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland | Tackling homophobia and transphobia through supporting LGBTQ+ inclusive primary schools | The aim of this project is to develop an evidence-based quality standards framework and accompanying resources to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion in primary schools across Ireland. Developed in consultation with and endorsed by key sectoral stakeholders, the project outputs will support school communities to create LGBTQ+ inclusive schools, while also informing strategy and policy decisions at national level. The project will contribute to the eradication of homophobia and transphobia by fostering changes in attitudes and behaviours in primary education, as well as providing increased evidence to advocate for equality-based policies, strategies and practices. |
| Womens Collective Ireland (WCI) | Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Awareness Seminar | The aim of this project to promote human rights, equality and intercultural understanding and to progress a shared organisational approach, and understanding of intersectional discrimination and its impacts. This will be achieved through awareness raising workshops for local leaders in the Womens Collective Network on intersectional and multiple levels of discrimination experienced by women and to multiply the learning in their local womens groups. |
| Age Action | Challenge Ageism -Reframing Older Persons Views of Themselves | The aim of this project is to create and co-produce with older people a training workshop and set of videos that will support older people to recognise and challenge self-directed ageism. It is expected that workshop participants will be able to use their agency to challenge ageism as a barrier to age equality. |
| Irish Council for International Students (ICOS) | Speak Out Against Racism Campaign | The aim of this project is to create awareness among and support international students, including in English language colleges, to know their rights and report incidence of racism by providing information on equality legislation and how to vindicate their rights if they have been discriminated against through a booklet, video and online campaign co-produced with students. Students will be more aware of their rights and how to report racism. The material will be made available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. |
| Hope and Courage Collective Uplift Partner: Community Work Ireland |
Understanding and responding to hate and extremism in our communities | The aim of this project is, through a training programme in four pilot areas of Ireland, to build the consciousness, capacity and confidence of community development workers and community leaders including ethnic minority, migrant and LGBTI+ leaders to act as multipliers in preventing the spread of extremism and hate in their communities, whilst simultaneously developing communities of solidarity, inclusion, welcome and respect. The training will be backed up by resource guides and the networking of those involved. |
| Hawkswell Theatre Partners: Sligo/Leitrim Community Inclusion Services, National Learning Network and ThisAbility |
SHINE Music participation programme for people with Intellectual Disabilities | The aim of this project, informed by input from people with intellectual disabilities, is to eradicate ableism and ageism by integrating disability accessibility into the theatres approach and programme This will involve training musicians and music facilitators to understand and engage with diverse audiences, leading to a series of music workshops for older people with intellectual disabilities. This project will add to a whole of organisation approach to increase diversity at the theatre, strengthened community partnership, and trained musicians and music facilitators to work in this field. |
| Mental Health Reform | Mental Health in the Workplace: A Guide to Your Rights | The aim of this project is to develop a guide to support people with psychosocial disabilities to understand and claim their rights in the workplace. The guide will be informed by people with lived experience of psychosocial disabilities. A key objective of the project is to improve public understanding of the prevalence and impact of ableism in the context of mental health in Ireland. By increasing awareness and understanding of equality legislation and human rights, the project aims to support more people with psychosocial disabilities to avail of supports and reasonable accommodations, and claim their rights if they experience discrimination in the workplace. |
| Ronanstown Womens CDP | Connecting through the Medium of Craft | The aim of this project is to undertake a series of workshops to enable and empower women to participate and discuss together through the medium of craft with the goal of the eliminating isolation, racism and social injustice. Through the development of a blanket of hope, the project will bring women across the community together including migrant women and women international protection applicants. The gatherings will be an opportunity to build resilience and enable those who have experience of discrimination to access information on their human rights. The Blanket will be launched on International Women Day 2024. |
| Rosemount Family Resource Centre | Countering Ageism | The aim of this project is to promote the dignity and equality of rights of older people. A focus group of older people will be organised to get their opinions on how best to eradicate ageism and make the community more age friendly and aware. This will inform an approach to eradicate ageism by incorporating older community members in intergenerational activities, awareness conferences, volunteering opportunities and decision making. |
| AsIAm | Inclusive Education Practices Part 2: Exploring Codes of Behaviours in Primary, Secondary and Special Schools in Ireland | The aim of this project is to conduct research to examine the use of codes of behaviour in our schooling system and to explore whether such instruments are in keeping with the spirit of the UNCRPD. The anticipated outcomes of this research is that it will shine a light on the ablest approaches taken when it comes to codes of behaviours in the Irish educational system. At its core, the project will examine what is needed for a fair and equitable educational experience for autistic school aged children/young people and the revision of codes of behaviour to reflect this. |
| Youth Work Ireland Galway | Youth Access Project | The aim of this project is to address ableism in the provision of public and social spaces for young people. It will bring together a diverse group of young people with disabilities to create a film documentary to raise their voice and highlight the issues impacting them regarding their exclusion from public and social spaces, leading to their inability to interact with their peers. The results of this project will be brought to the attention of decision makers, service providers and organisations that work with young people with the intention of creating more accessible spaces for all young people to engage with each other on an equal footing. |
| Cork Traveller Visibility Group Partner: Cork Traveller Womens Network |
Cork City Traveller Archive Project | The aim of this project is to compile and digitally archive a long and rich history of photographs and key documentation relating to Traveller heritage, activism (particularly human rights activism) and culture in Cork, to categorise it according to best practice with the involvement of a peer archivist and to make the material accessible to a wide audience. The goal is to create greater understanding and awareness among a wider audience of the struggles that Traveller activists have faced in terms of advocating for change and in the process build greater capacity for Travellers who want to train as archivists, as well as those who wish to better understand their history and heritage. |
| Sports Against Racism Ireland (SARI) | Inclusive Education through Sport | The aim of this project is to co-produce, with ethnic minority young people, an education resource to be used in primary schools by teachers and students (10-13 years) that will complement and add value to a series of anti-discrimination and anti-racism workshops delivered through the medium of sport by youth educators in SARI. While the resource will be rolled out to all schools, the primary target groups are working class and disadvantage youth and children from diverse ethnic minority and indigenous Irish backgrounds. |