George O'Doherty, Irene Kingston, Ian Livingstone, Maureen Piggott and John Neill at the launch

Futures DP spreading the news

A series of road shows was organised for the week of January 26th - 30th, 2004. Covering Belfast, Derry, Enniskillen, Dungannon, Newry and Ballymena.

Over 120 people attended the events, and applications were opened formally on the day. The original closing date was April 30th, but this was later extended to May 28th. This was to allow all those who had expressed a formal interest in EQUAL (by completing a Part A form) to be invited to a briefing session in mid-May. The event was well attended by the 40+ Part A applicants, and resulted in at least one merger, and some decisions that EQUAL was not the right vehicle for others.

In the event, 24 applications were received by the end of May, and assessment took place over the course of the summer. All applicants were informed at the end of August of the outcome. The drive to increase the number of applications under the Equal Opportunities theme was successful - 10 of the 24 were under this theme, compared to just 2 in the first call.

On the 5th October 2004, 13 applications were successful. 8 under the Employability Theme (Theme A) and 5 under the Equal Opportunities Theme (Theme H).

To view more information on the Second Call Development Partnerships please click on the following links.

The PowerPoint presentations within each DP page were given by the Lead Partners at the EQUAL Introduction Training Residential in Limavady on the 24th November, 2004.

DPs under Theme A - Employability are as follows:

Development Partnership	Lead Partner
Beyond Caring	South West College, Enniskillen Campus
Diversity Works	Disability Action
Employability Access Project (EAP)	North Belfast Partnership
Employment for Autism	The Orchardville Society
Engage	Simon Community NI
KEY Project	Cresco Trust Ltd
ReachOut	NIACRO (Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders)
Supported Employment in Action (SEA)	NIUSE (Northern Ireland Union of Supported Employment)

DPs under Theme H - Equal Opportunities are as follows:

Development Partnership	Lead Partner
Helios	Triax Taskforce
Possibilities	Gingerbread NI
Promoting Opportunities for Inclusion in Social care Employment (POISE)	Association for Real Change (ARC) NI
Women in Rural Areas and Investment in Self-Employment (WRAISE)	Aspire Micro Loans for Business Ltd
Women Into Non-traditional Sectors (WINS)	Belfast City Council

The Northern Ireland EQUAL Project Directory can be downloaded here (PDF File, 3.4 MB).