Mourne and Down Community Planning Partnership Chairperson Róisín Coulter at the launch of the ‘What Works for Men?’ website.

A new website has been launched to encourage men in the area to submit their experiences, ideas and views towards securing future job opportunities.

Launching the website after the celebration of International Men’s Day, Newry, Mourne and Down Community Planning Partnership Chairperson Róisín Coulter said,

“We are targeting men in this project because men don’t often make as much use of the support that is available to them. We want to hear from men and gather feedback from men’s experience about the things which have been of most benefit to them in getting them back to work.

“The Living Well Together, ‘What Works for Men?’, website is a fantastic platform that asks men from the East Down Area what could help, or what has helped them get back into work? We hope to create more effective support across the range of organisations that are there to help. It is envisaged that engagement with men via this website will help create support more relevant to men’s needs.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the economic landscape with many jobs lost, some possibly forever.  New jobs will arise but people recently laid off, or those who have been unemployed for longer, will be looking for new opportunities including those in building new skills for new jobs.

“The website can be accessed at www.livingwelltogethernmd.org and will be open from Monday 16 November 2020 until mid-December 2020. Any resident in Newry, Mourne and Down can register on the site and submit ideas, share experiences, tell their own story, complete a survey or join a discussion forum on what can help.”

The ‘What Works for Men?’ project is an online community engagement initiative from the Newry, Mourne and Down Community Planning Partnership seeking the views and experience of people on the issues that directly affect them. The Partnership aims to develop more online community engagement platforms with panels of residents across Newry, Mourne and Down area in the future.

The project is supported by the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland through the Civic Innovation Fund.