Advice project for Chinese community is launched

Co-operation between the Chinese Welfare Association and the NI Association of Citizen’s Advice Bureaux has resulted in a new initiative to promote the services offered by both organisations.

The ‘Advice for All’ project, which encourages members of the Chinese Community to become actively involved in the work of the Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx) as clients, advisers and committee members, was launched in Belfast On Monday by Ms Mary Bunting, Director of Equality in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

Ms Bunting said: “In ‘Advice for All,’ the Citizen’s Advice Bureaux and the Chinese Welfare Association are, together, making sure that Chinese people know about the Bureaux and the services they offer. They are making sure that Bureaux staff understand better the needs of Chinese customers, and that the services are more appropriate to their needs.

“This project demonstrates key principles to which we, and the whole of the Executive, are fully committed. It demonstrates what can be achieved when organisations bring together their knowledge, experience and insights, to produce something more than either could produce alone. It is about greater equality of opportunity and a more inclusive service.”

Ms Bunting said that she had been impressed with the “obvious commitment” of the people working together on the ‘Advice for All’ project.

Urging everyone to participate in the consultation process currently underway, she said that the Administration was “dedicated to making a real difference to the lives of every citizen in Northern Ireland,” through the Programme for Government draft, the aim of which was to build a “cohesive, inclusive and just society, in which all communities work together, where everyone feels valued and respected and in which there is equality of opportunity and justice for all.”

Comments should be sent to the Economic Policy Unit by November 20, 2001. (SP)