Secretariat :
The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland currently provides a secretariat for Foundations for Peace. It will rotate among member organizations.

The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland (CNFI), established 1979, is an independent grant-making organization. Its aim is to drive social change and build peace by tackling exclusion, poverty and social injustice through funding and supporting community-based action and influencing policy development.

CFNI as an indigenous Community Foundation which supports and mobilizes local communities to undertake the difficult, and sometimes dangerous task of creating a better and a more peaceful life. CFNI, over the years has made enormous contribution with their small community based projects, which have led to wider peace building efforts.

It is pleasing to see how the Foundation has born fruit through supporting fledgling organizations that are now important parts of the fabric of society; adding value by providing advice and guidance based on extensive knowledge and expertise in the community sector; and promoting and facilitating dialogue between groups and individuals.

Mary Black (Chair)	Leader - Health Action Zone North & West Belfast Previously worked with Northern Health and Social Services Board
Chrissie Cahill	Training & Development Officer with Community Change, Belfast Previously Development Officer with the Upper Springfield Trust, Belfast.
Mark Conway	Business Consultant and Director of - Venture International, Omagh, Co.Tyrone
Barney Devine	Business and Fund Raising Manager - Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma & Transformation, Omagh, Co Tyrone.
Sammy Douglas	Chairperson, East Belfast Partnership Board, Belfast
Lowry Grant	Principal accountant - JL Grant & Co Chartered Accountants
Dr. Jeremy Harbison	Chief Executive - Northern Ireland Social Care Council – retired senior civil servant and renowned author/academic.
Noreen Kearney	Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Social Work - Trinity College, Dublin Former Dean of Business, economic and Social Studies Department.
Philip McDonagh	Director / and Senior Economist – Price Waterhouse Coopers
Conal McFeely	Development Executive - Creggan Enterprises Limited, Derry City and previous Director of the NI Social Economy Agency.
Tayra McKee	Trade Union Organiser - Transport & General Workers Union
Dr. Paul McWilliams	Chairman - Parity Solutions, Belfast
Dr. Duncan Morrow	Director - Community Relations Council, Belfast and previous senior lecturer at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown
John O’Neill	Solicitor and head of Employment Rights Unit - Thompsons Law Company, Belfast and previous Director of the Belfast Law Centre and the Refugee Agency, Dublin.
Hilary Sidwell	Equality & Human Rights Coordinator - Westcare, Western Health & Social Services Board, Derry and former Women’s Officer with Derry City Council.
Colin Stutt	Consultant - CS Consulting, Co.Down. with specialism in economic and public policy
Ruth Sutherland	Director – Rethink, Co. Down and former director of the Community Development and Health Network.

The Foundation manages a broad portfolio of funding programmes, and where gaps in policy or practice are obvious, seeks to deliver action research development programmes with a view to policy change and influence.

A voluntary Board of Trustees reflective of the wider community in terms of gender, community background, regional representation and professional expertise manages it.

The Trustees ensured that the organization was structured to operate effectively in a divided society - it was to be composed of individuals drawn from both sides of the community divide, as well as having a gender and a geographic balance. Every effort was made to ensure that it reflected the various sectors within society - community and voluntary, but also the private sector and more latterly, aspects of the public sector.

This combination of interests ensured that the Foundation worked to develop programmes and opportunities for dialogue and change. The Foundation worked to tackle the many problems associated with a divided community – population shifts, interface issues, contested spaces, flags and emblems, fear and intimidation, arts and cultural differences, sectarianism, mental health and disability, family break-down and domestic violence.

Work with Politically Motivated Ex-prisoners
The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland has been involved in funding re-integration and peace building projects developed by groups of politically motivated ex-prisoners from both Republican and Loyalist backgrounds – a total of six different large groupings/factions. While most of the individual projects funded are ‘single identity’ in nature (i.e. they are either Republican or they are Loyalist), the Community Foundation has used its credibility with these groupings to bring representatives from both sides together every two months to discuss policy, practice and funding issues. With support from other stakeholders, they make joint decisions about funding allocations. This Policy Group of Political Ex-prisoners discusses a wide range of issues that they share in common, including how to engage in conflict transformation.

The Community Foundation has also brought speakers who were ex-prisoners in other divided societies – South Africa, Nicaragua etc - to share their experiences in peace building with political ex-prisoners from Northern Ireland.

Social Justice Work
The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland is acutely aware of the sensitivity and potential impact of language and terms used in a society that experiences conflict and division. It set up a ‘Social Justice Fund’ because a ‘Human Rights Fund’ would be seen as Republican/Nationalist and a ‘Civil Liberties Fund’ would be seen as Unionist/Loyalist. An example of the type of funding awarded under this scheme is a small grant awarded by it represents the first money that the ‘Justice for the Forgotten’ group received. This group of victims and survivors of two bombing outrages used the grant to lobby for the recognition of their needs and demands for information and support. Their advocacy campaign worked and they are now receiving Government funding to enable them to raise awareness and provide support to the families affected by the bombings.

Work with Young People
The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland also recognizes the important contribution that young people make to a society coming out of conflict. They have funded many programmes to directly benefit young people including diversionary activities at times of heightened tensions, music and sporting activity and counselling and therapy programmes. However, an added dimension of our work is to recognize the contribution made by young people through supporting them to become decision-makers and advocates on their own behalf. As a result, we have developed several Youth Bank Projects across Northern Ireland to enable groups of young people to get together and administer small grant programmes directly thus developing the Youth Foundations of the future.

Pro-active Work with Excluded Communities
The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland also recognises that alongside the development of grant making programmes in the area of social justice and peacebuilding, there is the need to pro-actively support the development of work in communities that have been excluded or alienated through the impact of the conflict or as a result of discrimination. They, therefore, have developed a Programme – Communities in Transition-to animate and support work in 22 communities across Northern Ireland where there was an absence of previous support or development. The goal is to provide flexible and responsive support and resources to enable the communities to meet, talk and engage at local level, assess their needs and develop programmes to empower them to change their situation.

website: www.communityfoundationni.org