The Irish Department of Social Protection will host the annual Social Inclusion Forum on 25th March 2015.
The Social Inclusion Forum is part of the institutional framework put in place by the Government to support the development of the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 (NAPinclusion).
The event provides a forum for wider public consultation and discussion on social inclusion issues between officials from Government Departments, Community and Voluntary Organisations and people experiencing poverty in relation to NAPinclusion.
The Forum aims to ensure that people who are directly affected by poverty and social exclusion and those who work with them have a voice in the development of the policies that directly affect them, and in the ways that the policies are implemented.
The theme of the 2015 Forum is social policy innovation for social inclusion and will include a discussion on updating and extending NAPinclusion and workshops on social housing, migrant poverty, prevention and early intervention services for children and youth exclusion.
This year, the Irish 17 October Committee will contribute to the Forum in two specific ways:
– an exhibition will present “Art works” created by different projects for the UN Day for Eradication of Poverty in 2014.
– Belinda Nugent, member of the International Committee for October 17th, will speak in the afternoon plenary session (see Programme of SIF 2015)