Governance

Governance
Community Work Ireland is governed by the Central Group and the Central Group members are directors and trustees of the organisation.

The CWI Central Group for 2020/2021 is:

Anastasia Crickley

Anastasia Crickley is the European Director of the International Association for Community Development, Chairperson of the All Ireland Endorsement Body for Community Work Education and Training (AIEB) and a member of the national Anti-Racism Committee. She was first Chairperson of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency, Representative of the OSCE Chair on Racism, and a former President of UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Anastasia is a longstanding member and former chairperson of the Community Workers’ Co-operative / Community Work Ireland, a founder member of Pavee Point and the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland and the former Head of Department at the Department of Applied Social Studies at Maynooth University. Anastasia currently chairs the CWI Policy and Practice Working Group.

Ann Friel

Ann Friel is a Traveller Women, a Human Rights Activist and is the Primary Health Care Co-ordinator and Assistant Project Manager with Donegal Travellers Project – A local independent Community Development and Human Rights organisation working for and with the Irish Traveller and Roma Community in County Donegal. Ann has been working in the Community Work Sector for over 20 years and is committed to achieving equitable health outcomes for the Traveller and Roma Community and has advocated at local, national and international level both at policy and practice level. Ann coordinates the Donegal Travellers Primary Health Care Team funded by the Social Inclusion Unit in the HSE and has graduated from Maynooth University with a certificate in ‘Community Work in a Changing Ireland’. Ann is committed to the eradication of oppression and discrimination for Travellers and Roma communities and stands in solidarity with Black Minority Ethnic Communities to achieve social justice and equality for all. and her work is underpinned by a community development and human rights framework.

Catherine Lane

Catherine Lane is the Women in Local, Community and Rural Development Officer with the National Womens Council. Before joining NWC, she worked as a community worker for eight years in Local Development Companies.

Ciara Bradley

Ciara Bradley is a community development worker, community work educator and social scientist with a commitment to equality, social justice and human rights and solidarity with all those facing inequality and injustice in all aspects of my practice: teaching, research and public engagement and collaboration.

Ciara teaches Community and Youth Work in the Department of Applied Social Studies in Maynooth University where she teaches sociology, groupwork, professional practice and development, equality and human rights, and research methodologies on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, as well continuous professional development. She also teaches gender and social policy modules at undergrad and postgraduate level. Currently, she coordinates MSocSc in Community and Youth Work – a Master of Social Science dual professional qualification in both disciplines of Community Work and Youth Work.

Ciara is the secretary of the Association for the Improvement of Maternity Services Ireland, a voluntary organisation that advocates for human rights in maternity services, and she is also the Treasurer of the Sociological Association of Ireland.

Liam McGlynn

Liam McGlynn has been teaching on the community development and youth work degree in TU Dublin Blanchardstown Campus since 2010. He is a voluntary member of the Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group and the Sierra Leone Ireland Partnership, having worked for two years in Sierra Leone, the experience of which has formed his approach to community development. Liam has worked in community development in the midland counties of Offaly, Westmeath, Laois and Longford in the 2000s, and in the 2001 to 2004 period, was a support worker to new FRCs at the time and established CDPs. He also worked in local development partnership company in Offaly prior to that 1996 to 1999 and subsequently for five years in community-based outreach education with Offaly Outreach Education Project for five years 2004-2009. Liam’s idea of community development has broadened and he realises that now there are many spaces where a community development work approach can be brought. He has found his present role as a community work educator to be both rewarding and fulfilling.

Marianne O’Shea

Marianne O’Shea is a lecturer on the professional Community Work and Youth Work programmes at the Department of Applied Social Studies, Maynooth University. In terms of research work there, she is interested in community work as a rights-based practice locally and globally, the role of local institutions addressing inequality and the participation of excluded voices in local governance processes. She has worked as a community worker in Ireland and in community-based and human rights focused projects in places such as Peru, Uganda and South Africa. This has contributed to a commitment to working in solidarity with other communities and community work practitioners experiencing similar challenges across the globe.

Niamh Wogan

Niamh Wogan has worked in both a paid and voluntary capacity in the community & voluntary sector for the past 25 years in Bray & Wicklow. Working in the Bray Family Resource & Development Project, she has played a major role in the development and implementation of a range of Social Inclusion initiatives and programmes in response to identified needs within the local community. Niamh is currently a member of a range of local groups and organisations in Wicklow that focus on addressing Social Exclusion and Poverty. Niamh is a member of the Central group of CWI.

Obert Makaza

Obert Makaza is a qualified professional Community & Youth Worker (BA), majoring in Human Rights and Social Policy (MSoc), over 10years working actively with various communities, including undocumented migrants and Travellers. Current on-going work includes working with migrants, focusing on International Protection applicants in Galway city and country as the Direct Provision Support Worker and the local community in Loughrea within the National Family Resource Centres programme as the current Chairperson. I am also involved as a director of the CWI.

Reuben Hambakachere

Reuben Hambakachere is a motivated Integration support worker with Cultur Migrants Centre in Navan. He has a background in Sociology. Reuben has a lived experience and professional knowledge of working with migrants in Ireland and several EU countries. Reuben is also a Trainer and face of the TREND web responsive app used to train migrants to be job creators in their new host countries, an EU ERASMUS Project supported by the Institute of Art Design & Technology Ireland, the app is used in 7 EU countries. He is Currently completing a Level 9 MSocSc in Community and Youth Work at Maynooth University. He has a passion for creating conditions for change for ethnic minorities and marginalised groups in Ireland. Reuben is on the board of Irish Refugee Council, Community Work Ireland, and Our Table, a community-driven non-profit project aiming to highlight the issues faced by people living in direct provision.

Seanie Lambe

Seanie Lambe is a community activist in the North Inner City area of Dublin. He has been involved in Community Development in the area for over 40 years, and remains an active participant in many community based initiatives He is Chairperson of the Inner City Organisations Network (ICON), a director of Saol, a project for women in recovery, a director of the Employment Network, Dublin Inner City Co-Op, and chairs a number of charitable trust companies dealing with housing and education.

Ronnie Fay

Ronnie Fay, Chairperson is the co-director of Pavee Point, the National Traveller and Roma Centre. She is an experienced community worker and a leading advocate for Traveller and Roma equality.

Siobhán McLoughlin

Siobhán McLoughlin is the director of the Donegal Traveller Project. An experienced community development worker, Siobhán is also involved in work to ensure equality for New Communities in Donegal.