LENADOON Community Forum has held a very successful Annual General Meeting in the Glen Community Complex. The large attendance of members and funders heard reports on the services offered over the past 12 months.
Chairperson Tim Smith reported how the Forum had continued to deliver its services and continued to reach out to people of all ages and abilities in the community. Forum staff and volunteers had assisted in delivering food parcels and utility vouchers over the past year to those in greatest need during Covid.
The Forum has continued to administer their Covid SOS Facebook Page which has been updated daily throughout this past year with information on services available to help local people of all ages and all abilities.
Michael Doherty said that the Lenadoon Counselling Service had delivered over 6,000 counselling sessions in the previous year. Counselling sessions were now being delivered both by telephone and by face to face depending on the needs of the client. The Weekend Suicide Intervention Service continues to operate.
Sharon McCullough of the Lenadoon Training for Employment Project reported that they had commenced an ECDL course and a basic computer skills class for local people and they are hoping to be able to announce the availability of new courses for local people in the coming months.
The small Forum Development Team facilitated consultations and meetings with local residents, statutory bodies, elected representatives and housing contractors. They also handled scores of housing and environmental cases and worked in partnership with community activists from Suffolk on the Stewartstown Road Regeneration Project.
This work has by and large been carried out virtually by Zoom as has most other community and voluntary sector work since April this year.
Tommy O’Reilly of Belfast City Council chaired the election of the Directors of Lenadoon Community Forum for the forthcoming year.
