Louth County Council are offering over €100,000 to deliver a cross-border LGBTQ+ project in the hope of effecting “attitudinal” and “behavioural” change in border villages and towns.
In a notice posted on Government procurement platform, eTenders, Louth County Council said that the ‘PEACEPLUS LGBTQIA+ Capacity Building Programme’ is a “cross community, cross border programme with a focus on improving the understanding of and respect for members of the LGBTQIA+ community”.
In the tender documents included in the post, applicants are told that the project objective involves the delivery of the programme to 106 people involving “two main activities including an outreach project in rural and cross border areas that will raise awareness, understanding and respect for the LGBTQIA+ community”.
The programme is described as having a focus on “increasing understanding of and respect for members of the LGBTQIA+ community in Louth”, which is considered to involve ‘attitudinal change’ in those it engages.
It is similarly described as promoting “greater inclusion of members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the design and access of LGBTQIA+ services, mainstream services, and visibility within County Louth”, which is considered to involve ‘behavioural change’.
Delivery of the programme involves engaging with “10 different villages / rural hamlets and towns” in rural and cross border areas in County Louth and into Newry, Mourne and Down to “increase awareness of issues and challenges for LGBTQIA+ people living in these areas”.
Another element of the programme involves the provision of four “dialogue events of an hour’s length each covering “good relations, anti-discrimination and anti-racism workshops, ‘New Ireland’ and what this could mean to Louth in the future, the Good Friday Agreement and Co Louth and the Troubles”.
The ‘indicative budget’ for the contract is €102,991 including VAT, the document reads, the contract expected to be in place for a duration of two years.
PEACEPLUS is a cross-border funding programme supported by the EU, the UK, the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland administration, intended to enhance “peace and prosperity across Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland”.