Waterford PPN: Social Inclusion Linkage Group meeting 27th February 2020
Viking Ramada Hotel, Waterford
A well attended meeting (over 30 attendees);
John Hawkes ran through the role of the Linkage Group and the roles and responsibilities of PPN reps.
Newly elected (or re-elected) PPN reps introduced themselves:
- Garrett Wyse – Social Inclusion rep on the PPN Secretariat and SI rep on the Economic Development & Enterprise SPC
- Heather Kiely – SI rep on the LCDC
- Donal Lehane – SI rep on the Planning & Corporate SPC
- Farid Ahmad Mohammad – SI rep on the Transportation & Infrastructure SPC
- Obianuju Ekedozie – SI rep on the Environment SPC
In addition we also introduced Leslie Hughes who represents the PPN on the Connecting for Life Steering Group; Nathaniel Ademoye, PPN Secretariat, Tony McSweeney, 2020 Decade of Commemorations Steering Group and Sinead Fahey the newly appointed PPN Support Worker.
Apologies:
- Lynda O’Shea – Social Inclusion rep on the Secretariat
- Richard Awosika – SI rep on the LCDC
- Vince Rellis – SI rep on the Housing, Community etc SPC
A general discussion about priorities etc. Key points coming out of it were:
- John highlighted the need for PPN reps to report back on their PPN meetings; an example was the recent Planning SPC report from John Galloway/Donal Lehane which highlighted a couple of issues with wider relevance which we able to act on;
- Tony McSweeney encouraged PPN SPC reps to bring in PPN member groups to make presentations to their SPCs;
- John mentioned the Economic Development Plan and look forward to working with Waterford City & County Council on this; Hugh O’Brien (WCCC Chief Planner) will give a presentation on the Plan at the next plenary meeting in early May;
- John also said that we were looking for volunteers to sit on the Traveller Interagency Group and a second rep for the Migrant Integration Steering Group;
- Noreen McGrath highlighted the need for Waterford City & County Council to consult communities at an early stage in developing strategies etc – the Waterford Traffic Management Plan was an example of consulting after the fact so to speak;
- We also highlighted the current Well Being Workshops and encouraged all groups to engage
There were no specific suggestions for a Social Inclusion event in Waterford this year or a regional event; colleagues with any ideas would feed them back to John.
An encouraging meeting which bodes well for the future; we will meet again in the autumn.