Dublin City Council launches Inclusion Week at reception this morning

Dublin City Council’s Integration and Inclusion week was launched by Lord Mayor of Dublin Alison Gilliland at a reception in City Hall this morning.

According to the council, “the aim of the week is to highlight the positive work carried out by Dublin City Council and other agencies to promote social inclusion, integration and diversity in our city.

“A variety of live and online events are organised across the week by Dublin City Council’s Housing and Community Services Department working collaboratively with a range of delivery partners.”

The week-long initiative features more than 100 events online and in person from walking tours, talks, workshops, exhibitions, music and more over the week of the 8^th – 12^th of November.

“Inclusion and Integration week has an event for everyone and aims to bring on board anyone in Dublin who may face barriers to social inclusion,” the local authority says.

“It is particularly targeted at young people, older people, people living with disability, members of the Traveller community, early school leavers and migrants.”

Speaking at the official launch, Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland said: “Our public, community and voluntary services support all our citizens but most importantly those who feel less empowered, those who may feel isolated because of age, disability or because they lack local connections or those for whom English is not their first language.

“This is the core focus of this year’s Inclusion and Integration week activities. Our ambition is to make Dublin a city for all.”

“Dubliners live in an increasingly diverse, multicultural city.

“We are more challenged than ever before to better realise Dublin as a welcoming, inclusive, dynamic, prosperous and indeed a fair city to live in, to work and to recreate in,” she said

Dublin City Council’s Inclusion and Integration Week 2021 is particularly timely as it includes the formal handover of the UNESCO Dublin Learning City award that was announced at the UNESCO Annual Conference of Learning Cities in Yeonsu, South Korea on the 27th of October.

The Lord Mayor commented: “Combined with the Dublin’s UNESCO Learning Cities Award, our Inclusion and Integration week is an opportunity for us all to recognise the work of Dublin City Council and our partners in the Dublin Learning City are making to create an inclusive, learning environment in our city.

“Together we are implementing UNESCO’s Guiding Principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals into practice.

“Particularly the fourth goal to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”