Glencree's Intercultural and Refugee Programme got underway in 2016. Current projects include: Promoting Community & Intercultural Relations through Dialogue and Encounter, funded by the Tomar Trust and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Hope and Ambition, funded by the Mount Street Club Trust; and Glencree Welcomes Refugees Project, funded by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Community Foundation of Ireland.
Our Intercultural and Refugee Programme aims to make Ireland a more welcoming and inclusive place, with respect for all ethnic, faith and cultural backgrounds, by facilitating intercultural dialogues among refugees, migrants, and members of diverse ethnic and faith communities.
Society in Ireland, both North and South, is facing challenges regarding the acceptance of ethnic, faith, linguistic and cultural diversity as well as the acknowledgement of new inclusive multiple identities and facilitating effective integration. To respond constructively to polarised opinions about migrants and other minority groups, there is an urgent need to promote the positive benefits of a more diverse and inclusive society. Careful listening through dialogue processes can help key stakeholders and the wider public understand the everyday experiences of minority groups and respond appropriately to their needs. Through facilitated dialogue community leaders, service providers, policy and decision makers in relevant sectors, gain an insight into, and an understanding of, the views and experiences of minority groups. This helps to inform their future communication and work with these communities while also serving to combat stereotyping, prejudice, racism and discrimination.
Audre Lorde
Established in 2016, our Intercultural and Refugee Programme seeks to build on Glencree’s experience in providing opportunities for people from divided communities to listen to the experience of ‘the other’, reduce prejudice, and develop constructive intercultural connections and collaboration. The programme focuses on facilitating intercultural dialogue to bring about more effective integration. These dialogues take place in safe spaces using creative methodologies and wellbeing practices that help individuals to find their voice and engage with others.
Our Intercultural and Refugee programme adheres to the following core values: we honour resilience and attentiveness to trauma; we foster authentic expression and voice; we operate with dignity and mutual respect; we encourage autonomy and empowerment. Across our projects, our team undertake quality trust and relationship building with individuals and groups who may experience exclusion and discrimination in their everyday lives.
Since its inception the Programme has focused on key project areas with the goals of:
Empowering - Building Relationships - Facilitating Dialogue
Building on the work of the Glencree Belonging & Identity project, supporting the government’s National Migrant Integration Strategy, and advancing the work to strengthen social inclusion and build diversity at local level, Glencree's ‘Promoting Community & Intercultural Relations through Dialogue and Encounter' (CIR) project aims to support improved community and intercultural relations between host communities and diverse ethnic and faith groups.
This 2019-2023 project funded by Mount Street Club Trust aims to build the confidence of marginalised women from minority ethnicities and faiths, and disadvantaged economic backgrounds, who are living in or are moving out of Direct Provision, to feel safe and express their needs.
The Glencree Welcomes Refugees Project provides group well-being sessions for Ukrainian refugees and people seeking International Protection and those who volunteer and work with/care for refugees, primarily using Capacitar Multicultural Trauma Healing self-care practices.
In 2020 Glencree launched ‘Belonging and Identity in the Second Generation’. Building on Glencree’s earlier work on the Muslim Communities Dialogue Project (funded by IHREC), this project was designed to support the implementation of the ‘National Migrant Integration Strategy 2017-2020’ in line with the Irish Government’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The project was funded by the Integration Unit, initially within the Department of Justice and Equality (DJE) and subsequently under the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).
Project Activities:
Funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), this 2018 project engaged diverse groups within the Muslim communities in the Dublin region in a series of dialogues on human rights and equality issues, and connected them with key stakeholders.
Project Activities:
This dialogue day welcomed Muslims from diverse communities, representatives of the Department of Justice and Equality, the Department of Education and Skills, and representatives from the world of education and media. A talk on anti-Muslim racism was followed by a discussion of key issues from which emerged 3 powerful messages:
Funded by the Tony Ryan Trust, this 2016/2019 project focused on trust building work for refugee and migrant women leaders, and others working with them.
Project Activities:
The 2018 Muslim Dialogues report identifies the key findings by participants in a series of dialogue events with women, men and young people of diverse Irish Muslim backgrounds living in the Dublin region.
Download the Full ReportThis podcast talks about diversity, integration and what it is like to be a young Muslim in Ireland during Ramadan and Eid in this time of Covid19. Joining Glencree’s Intercultural & Refugee Programme Manager, Nadette Foley, are Fardus Sultan from the Belonging & Identity Project Advisory Group and Mohammed Elsayed from the Under One Tent Initiative.
Nadette brings over 30 years’ experience in the area of human rights, refugee support, intercultural integration, and inter-faith work. While living in Pakistan in the late 1980's Nadette worked with Afghan refugee communities. During the 1990s she was Director of the Irish Refugee Council, and joined the Board of the Refugee Agency responsible for the resettlement of the Bosnian and Vietnamese refugees. As CEO of the Multi-Cultural Resource Centre - Northern Ireland, Nadette facilitated consultations between minority ethnic and faith groups, and statutory agencies during the introduction of new Equality and Human Rights legislation that resulted from the Good Friday Agreement. She continued her inter-faith and intercultural work with the Jesuit Refugee Service and the Dublin Multi-Cultural Resource Centre in Dublin before joining the team to lead Glencree's Intercultural and Refugee Programme.
At Glencree, Nadette has worked with colleagues and partners from diverse communities to develop intercultural dialogue work with Irish Muslim and African Irish communities to identify the issues of concern to them. She has widened the network of those from diverse backgrounds, including those seeking protection under the UN Refugee Convention, who work with the Intercultural and Refugee Programme. Nadette has also established networks and relationships with statutory agencies, local authorities and voluntary and community groups to engage them in intercultural dialogue work. She has built working relationships with individual artists from many disciplines who facilitate creative intercultural dialogue workshops and produce videos, publications and other creative media. In 2022, Nadette worked with Glencree Board members to design the Glencree Welcome Refugees Project to respond to the increased number of refugees being hosted in Counties Dublin and Wicklow. The ethos and focus of this work was inspired by the refugee wellbeing work which has been developed through the Intercultural & Refugee Programme ‘Hope and Ambition’ Project since 2017.
Having joined the Glencree Intercultural and Refugee Programme in 2020 as Programme Administrator, Sinéad was promoted to Assistant Programme Manager in 2023. In this role, Sinéad looks forward to continuing her work in supporting the peacebuilding aims of Glencree and the ongoing development of the Intercultural and Refugee Programme whilst working interculturally and with communities directly affected by migration and displacement.
Currently undertaking an MA in Race, Migration & Decolonial Studies at UCD, Sinéad's background as a facilitator and carer have supported her experiences in working interculturally and directly with people who are displaced. Prior to joining Glencree, she worked as a Coordinator in a refugee camp in Athens, Greece from 2016 to 2018. She then moved to Roscommon to work as a shift leader in the emergency, reception and orientation centre for programme refugees from Syria and Iraq. Her background in creative facilitation means that she was able to run projects working closely with women. Sinéad’s knowledge of Arabic, learnt while in Palestine, helped ease communication with the Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
Living in Ireland for the past 27 years, Patty is a Peruvian human rights lawyer and international development professional with vast experience in peacebuilding and approaches to dealing with trauma in conflict scenarios.
She worked for Trocaire for 17 years managing their Colombia Programme, as a Peacebuilding and Human Rights Advisor and Regional Liaison Officer for East Africa. As Adjunct Faculty of the Maynooth University Institute (2014-2020) she introduced a trauma sensitive lens and used dance and body movement in mediation training. She also developed research on collective trauma in conflict settings. In the past Patty has also been connected to Glencree's work in Colombia.
Patty works with a trauma sensitive lens and uses innovative approaches in her work in Ireland and internationally including the Capacitar Multicultural Wellness and Trauma Healing Programme, and Laban Dance and Body Movement. In 2013 and 2014, she led the Capacitar and Laban Dance Project in Colombia, where she facilitated numerous workshops with internally displaced women affected by gender based violence and with communities affected by mining, amongst others.
Patty now brings all of this experience to 'Glencree Welcomes Refugees', a project of the Glencree Intercultural and Refugee Programme.
Amina has a background in Political Science and International Relations from Izmir University of Economics in Turkey together with an MS in International Humanitarian Action from UCD and Uppsala University. She has worked with various organisations from Turkey, Jordan and the UK including Trust Consultancy and Development, UNRWA, Concordis international and the Business and Human Rights Resource Center. Amina has worked on various thematic issues such as: human rights, migration and peacebuilding in Central Africa and the MENA region. She has also worked as a volunteer in Brazil under AIESEC with NGOs Casa Shalon and Harpias focusing on UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 on Climate Action. Amina is trilingual, fluent in Arabic, French and English.
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Nadette and Louise are qualified Capacitar Ireland Tutors. They have trained in, and facilitated, capacitar practices for over 10 years. Capacitar is an international network committed to uniting people across borders in solidarity, understanding, reconciliation and peace. Practitioners use holistic wellness practices based on indigenous traditions that help people tap into the wisdom of their own mind, body and spirit.
