Conference to tackle issue of poverty ‘The Struggle is Real: Living on the Poverty Line – a Call to action’

A major conference that will examine the issue of Poverty in Northern Ireland and look at ways to alleviate its impact on local communities will take place in Omagh on Monday 24 February 2020.

Organised by Fermanagh and Omagh District Council in partnership with the Fermanagh and Omagh Community Planning Partnership, the one-day conference ‘The Struggle is Real: Living on the Poverty Line – a call to action’ will bring together people from the statutory, community and voluntary sector and elected representatives to identify ways to work together to tackle poverty and its impact on communities at a local level through learning from research and evidence of good practice. The Conference is aiming to be solution based. 

Speaking about the conference, Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Councillor Siobhán Currie, said that poverty and its detrimental impact on people’s health and wellbeing is one of the most critical and long-standing issues facing residents of Fermanagh and Omagh and across the north.

‘The issue of poverty is a key theme and action within the Fermanagh and Omagh Community Plan, which sets out to improve the quality of life in the Fermanagh and Omagh district through partnership working,’ said Cllr Currie.

‘This conference will provide a space for well-informed, honest discussions among community leaders, practitioners, educators, advocates, elected representatives and policy makers, to help inform and direct policy and action to help those most in need,’ she added. 

Keynote speakers on the day will include representatives from Advice NI, Belfast Food Network, Trussell Trust NI; Children in Northern Ireland; Ulster University; Fermanagh Trust; Department for Communities; Department of Education and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council. 

17% of all individuals in Northern Ireland are living in relative poverty. In Fermanagh and Omagh this figure rises to one in five. 

‘The Struggle is Real: Living on the Poverty Line – a call to action’ will take place at the Strule Arts Centre, Omagh on Monday 24 February 2020. The conference is free to attend. Video recordings of key speaker contributions will be hosted on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s website following the event.

For further information or for groups or organisations wishing to register a representative to attend, please visit Fermanagh and Omagh District Council website or telephone the Council’s Community Planning team on 0300 303 1777, text phone 028 8225 6216.