For contact details of senior staff at NWCDP see 'Our Team' (panel opposite)
The North Wall CDP, formerly the North Wall Women’s Centre (NWWC), was established in 1985 by a group of local women. They wanted a meeting place in the area, a safe space where they could get support and learning. The centre offered training to fill in educational gaps i.e. Junior Cert Maths and English, and basic computers skills. It also set up a drama group as a fun way to build the women's self-confidence.
Clip to RTE documentary: ‘Women of Sheriff Street’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9oCGYP01yY
Over the years, the NWWC saw the need to reach out to the broader community. It also wanted to provide a strong perspective on women’s issues, child welfare and social exclusion, and to facilitate interagency solutions rather than focus on single-issue perspectives and single-agency solutions.
Our centre is still based in Lower Sheriff Street, Dublin 1, in the heart of Dublin’s North East Inner City. We have helped open unofficial channels of communication, providing insights into the problems that confront our local community. This has improved co-operation between agencies and communities, increasing mutual understanding. In this role we have helped make this area a more enjoyable place to live.
Our vision is about empowering people and developing communities. We have grown in strength and North Wall Community Development Project, as we are now called, is recognised as a valuable resource in Dublin's North Inner City, particularly in community development.
Today we are an organisation that contributes in practical ways to the development of the area and to the productive lives of local people. Our services include:
- A community crèche that facilitates families and working parents, in particular, to avail of work and training
- Community Employment (CE) schemes
- Encouraging personal development, qualifications and long-term employment
- Providing adult learning schemes that are aligned with the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ). We carefully design courses to meet the needs of participants, and address skill gaps in the labour market.
In the future years, we will to continue to service the North Wall local community and progress our individual objectives to:
- Become a centre of excellence in the field of community based education and training
- Work with people in the community in supporting them to reach their full potential
- Provide supports, resources and opportunities which will help improve quality of life
- Provide structures and systems that will break down barriers of isolation and social exclusion
- Ensure that all our initiatives have an anti-poverty focus
- Actively encourage and promote local participation and promote local participation and ownership of the North Wall CDP
- Build the capacity of local people so that they can play a leadership role within the community and broader area.
NWCDP is governed by a Board (CLG) that has a minimum of 3 elected Directors/Trustees. The Board is regulated by the Chairperson and all employees are accountable to the Board through the General Manager.
Here are our Vision and Mission Statements:
Vision Statement: Empowering people, developing communities.
Mission Statement: To protect and promote personal development, through empowerment, belief, education, and influencing society, thereby reversing the decline in ethical values within the community.