The function room at the dHotel was a riot of colour on Thursday evening last as people from a dozen or more different countries, many of them in traditional costumes of their country, gathered to celebrate the launch of the Culture Connect Cultural Ambassadors initiative.
Culture Connect is an excellent organisation which works to promote the integration of people from many different countries living in Locally and offers newcomers to the area a myriad of useful services such as English lessons, housing, employment rights, social welfare entitlement and immigration. Their advice can be provided in 25 different languages!
The Cultural Ambassadors Programme was funded by the Peace IV initiarive and aims to facilitate communication and provide intercultural understanding, civic engagement and participation amongst people from minority ethnic/ refuge/ migrant backgrounds and service providers including statutory agencies.
The Manager of Culture Connect, Flora Okobi, said: “this programme and launch has been an amazing achievement for Culture Connect and the 17 trained Cultural Ambassadors, who will work towards reducing cultural barriers, improving attitudes and understanding of the issues that many of our communities experience.”
Mayor of Drogheda, Councillor James Byrne, said: “I was honoured to help launch Culture Connects’ Cultural Ambassador Programme. It was a truly positive day for Louth and humbling to meet so many migrants who are committed to furthering cultural integration within our community.
“With a large inward migration to County Louth over the past couple of decades the appointment of cultural ambassadors is a very positive step forward in working to achieve this aim.”
The Cultural Ambassador Programme is funded by the EU’s Peace IV initiative and will enable organisations like Culture Connect provide more opportunities to celebrate rather than merely tolerate cultural differences and empower more people to achieve their potential here in Louth”.
Congratulating Culture Connect and the trained Cultural Ambassadors, Roderic O’Gorman TD, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said via Zoom: “the Cultural Ambassador project is a very rich opportunity to develop on a personal level, to make fresh discoveries, to form new ideas, and also acquire a set of skills that will add to the value of work that Culture Connect undertakes.”
Culture Connect is very proud of this achievement; hope to work collaboratively with a range of voluntary, community and statutory services to inclusively address the intercultural barriers Migrants and People from New Communities identify when accessing information and services.
Maeve Harkin, the Social Inclusion Manager with Louth LEADER Partnership who supported the launch of the event states “that the Social Inclusion Community Activation Programme (SICAP) is delighted to work in collaboration with Culture Connect for the launch of the Cultural Ambassadors Programme and shall continue to support Culture Connect in terms of equality and access of information and services to promote inclusion. Well done to all involved in this exciting and inclusive programme”
If you are interested in learning more about the Cultural Ambassadors please see http://www.cultureconnect.ie/ or contact Flora Okobi on 041 9865 025 /087 1314312 or email: cultureconnect@ymail.com
