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Our Work
 
A Community Work Approach
Cultúr uses a community work approach to its work with migrants. Community work seeks to achieve social change through addressing the root causes of inequality and injustice. A community work approach is concerned with developing a critical analysis of society, power within society and the structural nature of inequality and injustice.
The manner in which this is achieved is through the participation of migrants who are affected by policy in the decision making process on issues that affect them in order to formulate or influence policy change.
It involves awareness raising, conscienzisation, collective action and the mobilisation of migrant voices to affect real social change. A community work approach will underpin the work of Cultúr by actively empowering migrants to participate in addressing the issues they are concerned with as they affect them
A Community Work approach includes/promotes:
- Empowerment of migrants through community work processes
- The development of a migrant analysis on issues impacting on migrants themselves through building the capacity of migrants creating an analysis of their situation
- Collective action by migrants which promotes solidarity and shared identified campaigns and issues
- Migrant participation in the planning, development and implementation of strategies impacting on their lives
- Visibility and Representation of migrants as advocates and leaders at all levels of society
Strategic Priorities and Areas of Work
In working towards the goals outlined below Cultúr has identified four key areas of work which are:
- Community work
- Policy Work
- Information Work
- Organisational Development
Goals
- Community Work: Use a community work approach to identify, engage with and support the empowerment of migrants within County Meath.
- Policy Work: To influence policy development facilitating the participation of migrants, addressing their needs and interests
- Information Work: To create awareness of rights and entitlements in order to empower migrants to exercise their rights equally.
- Organisational Development: To continue to develop Cultúr as an organisation which has structures and policies that are inclusive of migrants and is accountable in its management and corporate responsibilities
Projects
Meath Intercultural Network
The Meath Intercultural Network was founded by Cultur in March 2010 and meets quarterly, the group is made up of a range of organisations and individuals from the community, voluntary and statutory agencies, including ethnic led groups and migrants themselves. Membership is open to any organisation or individual engaged with migrants in the county.Cultur acts as the secretariat for the MIN and the work of the MIN is supported by an executive committee made up of MIN members. For more information on the MIN contact the office of Cultur.
The role and purpose of the Meath Intercultural Network (MIN) is to:
• To provide a forum for ongoing consultation on the changing needs of migrants in Co. Meath
• To provide a space for agencies, groups and organisations to meet, cooperate and collaborate in ensuring that policy and services are inclusive of the needs of ethnic minorities
• To share information and resources and identify gaps in information and resources and seek access to same
• To support each other to improve the quality of life for ethnic minorities in Co. Meath
• To support and ensure the participation and representation of Migrants from the Meath Migrant Forum
• To build and take action on recommendations of existing research and reports of ethnic minorities needs and issues in Co. Meath and to develop a strategy to respond to their current and future needs
At present the MIN has three sub groups under the following headings:
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EU Week Against Racism 2011
Cultur is in the process of developing a Migrants Forum for Co. Meath which could provide an opportunity for migrants to:
· Receive and share information,
· Form a collective analysis of their experiences and
· Take action on issues affecting their day to day lives
The purpose of the Forum would include:
- Building solidarity and common ground among migrants of different nationalities on the issues affecting their lives
- The Forum is would be held approximately every 6-8 weeks.
- It will provide an information and discussion session on different topics which would be identified by migrants themselves
- It will support the development of leadership skills among migrants who interested in voicing the issues that migrants experience
- It will campaign and publicise issues affecting migrants
- It will have a small working group who would organise events in between meetings
- It will followed by refreshments and an opportunity for migrants to meet and chat informally
- It will be supported in its development by Cultur
The Forum has met on a number of occassions to date and all new members are welcome-an inaugural meeting of the group will take place in April with updates available on our website and facebook page
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