National Democracy Week - Celebrating democracy in society

Starting today, National Democracy Week is a week-long celebration of democracy in society and is intended to provide an opportunity to celebrate progress and champion future democratic participation in this historic Centenary year of Suffrage.

The Week also coincides with the 90th Anniversary of the 1928 Equal Franchise Act which gave women the same voting rights as men.

As part of a year-long series of programmes to mark The Centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, the Department for Communities (DfC), in partnership with Politics Plus, developed and hosted a bespoke two-day leadership and civil representation programme. This programme was aimed to encourage participants to build an impressive set of skills that will open opportunities, encourage change and growth in participants’ lives and build capacity amongst their networks.

This programme, entitled ‘She Believed She Could, So She Did’, was aimed at 18 24 year old females and took place in Derry~Londonderry and Belfast in May and June. Through the medium of art, with coaching from local Artist Friz and singer Katie Richardson, participants created two ‘empowerment’ themed anthems and five paintings. They also designed and produced five one-minute empowering messages videos which will be tweeted by DfC each day during Democracy Week.  

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Notes to editors: 

The Department for Communities was established in May 2016.  It is the largest of the 9 Civil Service Departments and is leading the NI Departments on marking the Centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918.  See www.nidirect.gov.uk/rotpa

Guest Speakers on the two-day leadership and civil representation programme included Wayne Denner, Digital Educator; Professor Deirdre Heenan, Ulster University; Tracy Magee, UTV Deputy Political editor and Virginia McVey, Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland.

For media enquiries please contact the DfC Press Office on 028 90 823 509 or email: press.office@communities-ni.gov.uk. For out of hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number on 07623 974 383 and your call will be returned.

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