National Civic Forum for dialogue with the community and voluntary sector

In August 2019, the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) in collaboration with the Community and Voluntary Sector published Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities: A five-year strategy to support the community and voluntary sector in Ireland 2019-2024.

Action 1.4 of this strategy committed to ‘Support participative and deliberative approaches for developing public policy, including establishing a Civic Forum for formal dialogue between the sector and local and central government’.

In furtherance of the above objective, the Department of Rural and Community Development, set about the designing, planning and hosting of a national Civic Forum event for the community and voluntary sector, which included preparatory focus groups to engage with stakeholders to inform the national event design and priority themes.

The first annual National Civic Forum for Dialogue with the Community and Voluntary Sector was held on 21 November 2022 in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin. The Forum was attended by over 100 delegates from the community and voluntary and state sectors.

The second annual National Civic Forum for Dialogue with the Community and Voluntary Sector, under the theme of ‘Bringing the Values and Principles to Life’, was held on 15 November 2023, also in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.

The third annual National Civic Forum for Dialogue with the Community and Voluntary Sector, was held in the Hibernia Conference Centre of Dublin Castle on 04 December 2024. The theme of the event being ‘Joint Collaboration for Better Outcomes’.

To date, each Forum has been attended by more than 100 delegates from the community and voluntary and state sectors, and a summary of each Forum along with all feedback and contributions are collated into reports, accessible below.

If you have any questions about the National Civic Forum for dialogue with the community and voluntary sector please contactCommunityPolicy@drcd.gov.ie