This article is from page 19 of the 2007-10-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
GORT women are being offered the chance to influence public policy, both locally and nationally, by taking part in a study focusing on women’s needs in the area.
The Gort Women’s Equality Net- work (GWEN) will host two public meetings this week in the Lady Gre- gory Hotel, where they hope to iden- tify barriers to women being able to participate in decision-making proc- esses at a local level.
The study, created by Dr Niamh Clune and Douglas Johnson of the Gort Regional Alliance for Community and Environment (GRACE) in partnership with the Family Resource Centre, will also examine why more local women do not avail of further education or participate in the workforce.
“It 1s a study into women’s needs. The target is unemployed women, women who are not on the live reg- ister. The purpose of it is to find dif- ferent ways of getting them back into the jobs market. We are trying to tar- get venerable groups, single mothers
or people who are having difficulty finding a job for whatever reason,” said Mr Johnson.
“We are holding two separate public meetings – an evening meeting and a morning meeting. The purpose of this is to accommodate people who cannot make one or other of the meetings.
“We are also using one-to-one inter- views on an ongoing basis. We train- ing some of the women as interview- ers and they then interview the other women on a one-to-one basic. This is in order to make it a more comforta- ble experience for the women, so they feel comfortable and we get a more
spontaneous answer.’
The research has been ongoing all year in Gort and all available data will be compiled next month and presented to interested parties lo- cally and nationally.
“We are hoping to have the report finished for the second week in De- cember. We will be presenting the information to interested parties and distributing copies of the report to people like the local VEC and Health Board,’ continued Mr Johnson.
“We will also look at mainstream- ing the findings so they can be used in the formation of Government policy in different departments. We will look to influence local employers, encour- age them and examine their practices and, 1f possible, change them to fit with the needs of these women.”
GWEN will host two public meet- ings, on Wednesday, October 24 from 7.30pm to 9pm and on Thursday, Oc- tober 25 from llam to 12.30pm in the Lady Gregory Hotel in Gort.