Dormant Funding To Help Learners Book Training

The Association for Real Change Northern Ireland are celebrating being awarded funding for a new website from the National Lottery Community Fund. The Dormant Accounts Fund NI supports the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector in Northern Ireland to be more resilient and prepared for the future.

ARC NI Director, Leslie-Anne Newton, said “As a small charity, with four staff members, we need to constantly be thinking about how technology can help us change thinking, change practice and change lives. A new website will help us reach more people, explain better who we are and what we do and how they can join us in improving the lives of people with a learning disability. We are delighted to be awarded this funding and are excited with the opportunity this offers us and the learning disability community in Northern Ireland.”

ARC NI works with communities to help them support, celebrate, respect, listen to and include people with a learning disability, autistic people, or people with other support needs (Experts by Experience) and their families. We help make real change happen through training, research, networking, collective advocacy and policy. Our new website will be a key tool helping us deliver this work.Funding will allow the building and launch of a new accessible website in March 2024 which will act as a platform to:

• sell ARC NI services (membership, training courses, events, our accessible information service) and offer customers online booking and payment services;
• explain who ARC NI is, what we do and invite people to get involved in our work;
• share important news relevant to the learning disability community by integrating social media and marketing tools to help us reach more people.

Kate Beggs, The National Lottery Community Fund’s Northern Ireland Director, said: “We are pleased to award a grant of £39,508 from the Dormant Accounts Fund to ARC NI, to future-proof their website, improve efficiency and raise their profile.

“Money from Dormant Accounts is helping to secure the future of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations across Northern Ireland. It is building their capacity, resilience and sustainability, so that they can continue to deliver vital services to local communities.”