GSAP is the key / core community support agency operating in the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett DEA / Outer North Area working with and on behalf of the local community. 

Established following a public meeting in October 1995, and formally incorporated in August 1998, the Greater Shantallow Area Partnership (GSAP) is a company limited by Guarantee, and as such is governed by a memorandum and articles of association.  The Board of Directors (currently 11 members) has overall responsibility for project finance, planning, administration and strategic planning – supported on a day-to-day basis by a senior management team that includes a Project Manager, Community Development Manager, and Strategy Manager.

GSAP is the key / core community support agency operating in the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett DEA / Outer North Area working with and on behalf of the local community.  This includes local residents, families, our service users, our colleagues in the C&V sector, local schools, and our business and statutory partners. GSAP has more than 30 years’ experience acting as a central resource for individuals and groups, encouraging and supporting them to tackle for themselves the problems which they face.  The GSAP continues to enable them to change things by developing their own skills, knowledge and experience and also by working in partnership with other groups and with statutory agencies for the betterment of the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett / Outer North area of the City.

As a registered charity, the GSAP is subject to all of the statutory reporting duties required of all registered charities in Northern Ireland.  This includes reporting on how it meets its public benefit, presentation of its annual audited accounts, list of Trustees, and presentation of annual report – detailing the work of the charity each year.

GSAP has 30 years’ experience of managing a range of projects and initiatives, and given this experience has assumed the lead role in a number of projects (including citywide projects).  GSAP is required to design, develop and manage a range of systems and procedures in order to ensure the effective and efficient administration of funding.

As a core community support organisation, the GSAP seeks to bring together and support local residents, community/voluntary sector groups and statutory/private organisations that have an interest in or involvement with improving the social, community, economic and physical environment within the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett / Outer North area thus helping to create sustainable communities that are:

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Active

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Inclusive and Safe

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Well Run

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Well Designed and Built

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Well Connected

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Thriving

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Well-Served

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Fair for Everyone

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Environmentally Sensitive

Our over-riding / main purpose is to develop and sustain a vibrant community & voluntary sector in the area in which well-informed people enjoy high quality, sustainable and appropriate services in an accessible, well-managed environment.

The GSAP has 4 over-arching charitable purposes which includes: (1) Relieving Poverty – by reducing the impact of poverty on people’s quality of life, the prevention of poverty, and improving the physical, social, community, and economic conditions within the area.  (2) Advancing Education – Creating and sustaining a more educated, skilled and qualified population within the area, and a more informed, and capable C&V sector within the area, (3) Preserving Health – Improving the health and wellbeing of residents of all ages living in the area, and (4) Providing Facilities by way of improved community life, new community infrastructure / facilities developed and maintained, and new and existing C&V sector groups based in the area developed and maintained so that they can be used by the local community for the foreseeable future.

In order to achieve our main purposes, the GSAP currently employs 20 staff delivering a range of community-based interventions, programmes, projects, programmes, and initiatives across the area.  In order to do this the GSAP operates with an annual budget of circa £1m.

  • GSAP’s Main Activities

    The Greater Shantallow Area Partnership has 4 broad areas of remit that include developing “Learning Communities”, “Influential Communities”, “Active Communities, and “Inclusive Communities “.  The GSAP actively promotes these 4 key areas of remit by supporting, delivering, & maintaining a range of activities – including programmes and projects as set out below:

    As part of our role in developing “Learning Communities”, the GSAP seek partnership alliances with local training providers to increase and enhance access to education and vocational training for people from disadvantaged and socially economically inactive backgrounds;

    The GSAP facilitates the local delivery of the district wide Success North West Employment Programme targeting (previously Skills North West) 120 local people each year. Our staff specifically target residents of the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett DE area providing a range of interventions to improve employability opportunities.

    The GSAP staff facilitate the ongoing delivery of the Outer North Extended Schools Cluster Programme (17 local schools) providing accessible, comprehensive personal development and training (formal/informal) or instruction to parents, families, pupils and the general public targeting 800 individuals to build the confidence and skills of local people to become involved in their local community.

  • Influential Communities

    As part of our role in developing and promoting “Influential Communities”, the GSAP continues to act as lead and hold many strategic meetings each year to identify opportunities for regeneration and to advance the physical and social regeneration of the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett DE area;

    Our staff provide support, governance advice and resources to assist a minimum of 30 community organisations (per year) to deliver effective community activities/services.

    Central to the work of GSAP is developing meaningful working alliances and partnership relationships, to help promote new opportunities for interagency and inter sectoral alliances that seek to address disadvantage and promote social inclusion within the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett DE area.  The GSAP provides leadership, to help sustain and coordinate and/or manage area wide programmes, and currently manage around 11 existing integrated, community led local services within the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett area each year.  Our core community support project provides capacity building and technical assistance including one to one training in community development activity and good governance to over 30 community groups(especially where activity is low or fragmented) per year so to help them to identify community issues, needs and problems, build their confidence, increase their skills, support them to develop new community-based programmes and resources, help them to evaluate and monitor existing/new programmes and in effect enhance their ability to effect change for themselves and their community and improve local services.

  • Active Communities

    As part of our role in developing “Active Communities”, the GSAP continues to manage the ETHOS “Wrap Around” Family Support Hub for vulnerable families and individuals living in the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett DE Area.  This vital lifeline to local families / individuals targets a minimum of 200 Adults / 100 Children per year.  However, since the COVID19 Health Pandemic, and the current cost of living crisis the number of referrals into the Family Support Hub have soared.

    The GSAP also is a member of the Outer North Neighbourhood Partnership (the GSAP acts as the secretariat to this partnership) to support the realisation of new economic, social and physical regeneration of Greater Shantallow / Outer North / Ballyarnett DE Area.

    Our staff continue to provide regular advice and information to 30 community/interest groups per year through meetings (both in person and online), newsletters, electronic briefings, leaflets, social media etc… to increase community participation and reduce social exclusion and enable local citizens /groups to have their voices heard and have the means to tackle for themselves the underlying causes of their problems.

    Our core community support team of staff train and support a minimum of 20 community development workers per year in the Greater Shantallow / Ballyarnett DE area who provide a vital link between communities, local government partners and other statutory bodies to influence decision-making and promote social inclusion.

    Staff provide on-going advice/guidance to charities as a CCNI ‘Helper group’.  Staff work with on average 10 charities per year – helping them with their registration, and completing annual returns as required.

    As a registered umbrella group with ACCESS NI, the GSAP facilitates ACCESS NI requests completing (on average) around 50 vetting requests per year.

    Central to our work in terms of developing active communities is to maintain membership of 10 citywide organisations to promote networking through the transfer of knowledge across and between similar groups, through communication channels it has already established and the strong linkages it has developed with organisations in other areas.

  • Inclusive Communities

    Finally as part of our role in developing “Inclusive Communities”, the GSAP facilitates around 10 networking events each year with local residents, groups, and groups from across the city / region each year so to have the opportunity to share knowledge, skills, and resources, strengthen, and build new relationships.

    Our staff continue to build on and strengthen the effective relationships with key organisations by holding strategic meetings each year.

    Furthermore we organise / promote and support a number of cross-community outreach events/activities each year to promote and further good relations.

    The Greater Shantallow Area Partnership’s (GSAP’s) core role is to support our local C&V sector partners by way of a full range of technical assistance / capacity building measures, interventions, and projects.

    The GSAP has been consistently to the fore in terms of supporting the realisation of a range of key community based infrastructural / physical developments over the years.  Of note has been GSAP’s role in supporting the development of the new Shantallow Community Centre, the new Leafair Health & Wellbeing Centre, the (recently opened) new Galliagh Community Centre, the redevelopment / refurbishment of the Victoria Hall in Culmore into a new state of the art Community Hub.

    Indeed the GSAP has worked in partnership with APEX Housing Association to develop a new community facility in the Skeoge area of the City.  The GSAP now oversee and manage this new community facility within one of the most deprived areas across the City and region.  From this Centre the GSAP run a range of community based programmes and initiatives, and also has overseen the development and realisation of a new community based cafe operating from the ground floor of the building.  Going forward, it is our intention that this will develop into a social enterprise, employing local people that enables us to reinvest profits back into sustaining this community asset.