Dozens of Irish community development workers are in Glasgow to attend and take part in the World Community Development Conference, which runs from June 30 to July 2. The event takes place biennially and has attracted representatives from more than 70 countries – all keen to exchange ideas.
We spoke to two Irish people prior to departure – one from the east, another from the west of Ireland – Marie Louise Byrne and Chloe Ní Mháille.
As exciting as a music festival
Chloe is the development co-ordinator with Community Work Ireland and she was as excited as somebody heading to Glastonbury or the Electric Picnic.
“Some people might laugh, but it’s kind of like going to a festival with all your favourite musicians. After studying community development in Maynooth University and looking at theorists, and now they are all coming together in one place to give keynote addresses and workshops… To be able to listen to them and learn from them; there’s great value in that,” she said.
While Irish delegates can learn plenty from practitioners from other countries, she believed the Irish delegates would also make valuable contributions.
“Ireland ranks quite highly in terms of best practice, and we can share what we have tried and tested with other countries as well,” she said.
For many years Chloe has been a member of the International Association for Community Development which is co-hosting the conference alongside the University of Glasgow.
She feels it is important for them to come together and meet in-person, since their global networking meetings usually take place online.
“It’s great there’s such a strong Irish delegation going over this year,” Chloe said. Around 40 people from Ireland are believed to be attending.
Some of those attending from far flung countries will visit here during the conference and a trip to Belfast features on the official programme – alongside visits to the Highlands and to projects in Glasgow.
“People from places like Japan and New Zealand don’t get to this part of the world too often and they’re going to make the most of it while they can,” said Chloe.
Meeting people from other countries
Marie Louise Byrne is community development co-ordinator with Wexford Local Development. When she spoke to Changing Ireland she was getting ready to speak at the event.
“I’m doing what’s called a lightning talk. Six of us who have never met before will have five minutes each to talk. I’m in a group with people from Florida, from Sydney, from Scotland and elsewhere to talk about the challenges to community development,” she said.
Marie Louise has just completed research that will inform what she speaks on.
“I submitted my research for a Masters last week on how professional community workers in Ireland communicate their identity. Community development is used to describe everything.
“Youth workers suffer similar frustrations. Anything that happens with young people is kind of classified as youth work, but it’s not. Sport can be brilliant, and young people can be involved in it; but that’s not youth work. Likewise, there can be a lot of stuff that takes place in a community that is not necessarily community work, as per the international definition or the definition used in government policy.”
“I work with a team here and you frequently hear them say things like ‘They wanted us to do such and such a thing, but that’s not community work’. Or they might say such a person says they are a community development worker but they’re not, they’re an administrator. That’s what my research was about,” she said.
Like Chloe, she was looking forward to meeting people whose work she has long admired. One of those is Professor Sarah Banks, a sociologist who co-founded Durham University’s Centre for Social Justice and Community Action.
“I’ve read a lot by Sarah Banks and she is speaking at it. It is great to have the chance to meet these people,” she said.
She said that community development tends to be strong in post-colonial societies in African countries and she was interested in meeting delegates from such countries, while she was also looking forward to hearing about the current American experience.
“It’ll be interesting to meet people from America as well. It will be interesting to see where they are at now,” she said.
You can listen to Marie Louise talking briefly about areas of interest here.
Fees softened by bursaries
Conference attendance fees ranged from £282 for IACD student members to £466 for non-IACD members. The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht provided limited funding to support a small number of people from Ireland involved in community work to participate in the conference. The bursaries were managed by the All Ireland Endorsement Body for Community Work Education and Training and successful applicants received €500 each towards costs.
The World Community Development Conference was last held in Ireland in 2018 – in Maynooth, Co. Kildare.
For those who cannot attend
For those who cannot attend, yet would like an insight into the international community development issues, we recommend you check out past issues of Practice Insights magazine – freely available here. Also, the conference website is here.
