Cross-Border: enACTing cooperation (CBenACT) project gets underway

 

The Centre for Cross Border Studies is delighted to announce that our latest project has got underway. Funded by the International Fund for Ireland’s Communities in Partnership Programme (£104,979), Cross-Border: enACTing cooperation (CBenACT) is a pilot cross-border collaboration between the Centre for Cross Border Studies, Creative Spark (Dundalk) and Women’s Tec (Newry).  

               

Its core objectives are:  

• the strengthening of the capacity to engage in progressive and sustainable cross-border cooperation through the provision of the specific skills necessary to deliver cross-border projects of meaningful benefit for communities on both sides of the border;  
• the embedding of an approach to cross-border cooperation that sees it as central to organisations’ work rather than as peripheral to their core missions; and  
• increasing mutual understanding and awareness of issues and challenges affecting communities on both sides of the border, particularly those with the potential to impact on cross-border relations and mobility.  

 

This is an 18-month project, made possible by IFI, and will also lead to the design and initial implementation of a cross-border collaboration between Creative Spark and Women’s Tec, with a focus on the cross-border sharing of resources and skills to deliver training for women in non-traditional skills (e.g. plumbing, carpentry, tiling, electrics), women in STEM/STEAM, as well as climate action as an area for community capacity-building. It will also produce an online repository of training material for the development of cross-border cooperation projects that will be available on the CCBS website for use by other organisations beyond the lifetime of this project. 

CCBS has hosted the initial meetings with the staff and board members of both Creative Spark and Women’s Tec to introduce the project and begin building the relationships that will be crucial to the success of the project. There is great enthusiasm for this project that will benefit not only the initial partners but many others who will be able to use the materials produced to strengthen their own cross-border cooperation.  

 

You can keep up to date with the progress of the project here.