SESSION ONE - PREPARATION

Understanding the problem, needs and locality

Thanks to funding from Northern Ireland’s Historic Environment Division’s Covid-19 Culture, Languages, Arts and Heritage Support Programme, we will be running a series of online seminars about project development for places of worship in Northern Ireland, for both repairs and facilities projects.

These will be run as four 2 hour sessions held online via Zoom on Friday 5th March, Friday 12th March, Friday 19th March and Friday 26th March (all 11am to 1pm). We will be inviting professionals from within Northern Ireland, as well as representatives from churches, to join us as we break down the steps required to planning a successful capital project. From knowing your building, the locality and needs; to developing a project, brief, team and appointing the right professionals; to planning the project phases and finances; to fundraising and the benefits. We would recommend signing up to all 4 sessions for maximum benefit but you can, of course, just attend the sessions that you think will be most useful to you.

Session one is all about the preparation and will cover topics such as:

• Understanding the repair problem;
• Understanding the locality (need, what's there already, what's missing, your USP);
• Community Engagement;
• Building up a Project Team;
• Governance;
• Outline plan and objectives;
• Risk Management;
• Understanding the building;
• Understanding planning regulations;
• Identifying stakeholders;

The seminar will be interactive so there will be a chance to ask questions throughout. There will also be a range of free resources that will be shared with delegates