Department for Foreign Affairs (Dublin) Reconciliation Fund
WHISPER - Women in Sustainable Peace, Empowerment & Reconciliation
KWC are delighted to launch the WHISPER project, which has been supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs (Dublin) Reconciliation Fund.
WHISPER will support 40 women from the sub-region of Ards & North Down in a range of activities with Good Relations and Cross Border engagement at its heart. The project is designed to support women in community leadership roles, and new and emerging female leaders to enhance their roles in the community and to build our connections on an all island basis.
For information on how to get involved contact Alison at the centre on 028 91 478292
Follow us on social media for up to date details on opportunities and news on the impact of the project.
Project Supporting Women in Leadership Across Ards & North Down.
EmpowerHer is more than just a project—it’s a transformative journey designed to empower women as catalysts for change within their communities. Funded through the DFA Reconciliation Fund, this initiative blends skill-building activities, mentorship, and networking opportunities with an inclusive advocacy approach. EmpowerHer provides a powerful platform for diverse, underrepresented, and emerging voices to articulate their perspectives on reconciliation. By fostering a shared vision for the future, the project helps communities from different traditions come together. Participants join a dynamic network of changemakers, gain invaluable skills, and access ongoing mentorship and events that support their advocacy journey.
Through EmpowerHer, women not only transform their own lives but also create lasting, positive impacts on the communities they represent.The first component of EmpowerHer is a series of eight structured workshops focused on developing core advocacy and lobbying skills. Each session builds on the previous one, ensuring that participants can apply their learning through practical exercises and interactive discussions. The journey begins with an Introduction to Advocacy and Lobbying, where participants explore key definitions and examine case studies of successful campaigns. This foundation is followed by a workshop on Effective Communication in Advocacy, where attendees craft and present persuasive speeches tailored for various audiences. As the series progresses, workshops cover essential topics such as Building Relationships with Stakeholders, where role-playing activities help hone networking and relationship management skills, and Strategic Lobbying: Planning and Execution, which guides participants in creating actionable lobbying plans. Additional sessions delve into Grassroots Mobilisation and Community Engagement, The Art of Negotiation and Persuasion, Advocacy in Action: Meeting with Policymakers, and finally Evaluating Advocacy Campaigns, providing participants with tools and metrics to measure their impact. Together, these eight workshops equip participants with practical strategies to influence social and political change effectively.
Leadership Residential - Dublin 2026
Building relationships, friendship and collaboration is a key element of the WHISPER project. When we co-designed the project with potential participants, they were keen to look at a long term engagement, as we all recognised that women in community across the sub region of Ards North Down are being left behind in comparison to their Belfast / Derry counterparts. There is much work to be done, and we are coming from a place of great need. Many of the women working in the sector, are volunteers, are getting older and we want to make the women’s sector in the region more sustainable and robust, to encourage new people and in particular young women to get involved.
The Dublin residential included a range of participants, with different levels of experience. What united us all, was our desire to improve frontline community services to women in the area, with a focus on disadvantaged, rural women, migrant women and women with mental health challenges. Additionally – it is vital we include ending violence against women and girls into all elements of the work we do together.
Mentoring & Coaching
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Public Speaking & Growing Confidence
In the women’s sector, the ability to communicate with clarity and conviction is often what transforms a good idea into a meaningful movement and it is critical that local women have the confidence and skills to convey messages to a range of audiences such as the media or a local group or organisation. However, for many emerging female leaders, the prospect of addressing a room full of people or key stakeholders, presenting a budget to a board, or simply voicing an opinion in a meeting can be a significant barrier to impact. This is why dedicated workshops focused on confidence building and public speaking are so vital. They move beyond the simple mechanics of speech-making to address the internal blocks that hold individuals back. By providing a supportive environment to practice and fail safely, participants learn to harness their authentic voice, ensuring that their passion for their cause is communicated as powerfully as the data that supports it.
This element of the WHISPER project will focus on confident communication to ensure this skill is core to the Whisper project’s participants. We recognise that mastering the technical skills of charity governance or financial management is only half the battle; one must also have the confidence to advocate for those strategies effectively. Our upcoming workshops are designed as a practical and safe space for participants to develop these exact skills. Through guided exercises and constructive feedback, participants will learn to manage nerves, structure compelling narratives, and engage diverse audiences—whether they are speaking to a team of volunteers, presenting to community members, or championing a funding proposal. By integrating public speaking and confidence-building into the programme, we are ensuring that our future leaders are not only knowledgeable but also articulate and poised, ready to represent their organisations and communities with assurance and authority.
Job Shadowing & Continuous Development
In the fast-evolving landscape of charity and community development, continuous personal development is no longer a luxury—it is a necessity, particularly for women working in the sector and in these challenging times where every penny into the community counts. While formal training and workshops provide the theoretical framework for growth, we have created immersive experiences for job shadowing which offer something uniquely valuable: context. By observing a project colleague or community leader navigate the complexities of their role, individuals gain real-time insight into decision-making processes, problem-solving techniques, and the subtle art of leadership. This hands-on observation bridges the gap between knowing and doing, ensuring that professional development is not just about acquiring knowledge, but about understanding how to apply it effectively in the real world and into the complex community sector in Ards and North Down.
This philosophy is at the very heart of the WHISPER supported by the DFA Reconciliation Fund. We have designed this element to be a practical engine for upskilling, specifically targeting the core pillars that keep our charities and community spaces thriving. Through structured shadowing opportunities, mentees will witness first-hand the intricacies of robust charity governance and efficient administration, seeing how policies translate into daily action. Furthermore, the programme will open doors to mastering smart tools for effective finance, allowing participants to learn from experienced mentors who can demonstrate how technology can streamline budgeting, reporting, and fundraising in ways that a textbook simply cannot replicate.
Ultimately, the Whisper project’s mentoring programme is about nurturing well-rounded leaders who are equipped to manage both people and places with confidence and can engage with a range of key stakeholders with confidence. Job shadowing within this framework allows new and emerging managers to observe different leadership styles and community engagement strategies in a live setting. They can see how a mentor mediates a difficult conversation, motivates a team of volunteers, or makes a tough call about resource allocation for their community hub. By building these connections and creating a safe space for observation and reflection, we are not just passing on skills; we are building a resilient, knowledgeable, and interconnected community capable of steering its organisations toward a sustainable future, where it is crucial we all think about succession planning.
