CDHN releases Annual Report for 2025-26

CDHN are delighted to release our Annual Report 2025-26. This report provides an overview of our organisation’s achievements, activities and progress over the past year.

The report was officially released at our AGM on Thursday, 17 September at Ormeau Labs Belfast.

It also highlights the work CDHN have undertaken throughout the year, and celebrates our key successes while recognising the people and contributions that helped make them possible. These successes are shared under the headings of our six strategic priorities, which we set out in the launch of our Strategic Plan back in December 2025.

Introducing our latest report, CDHN Director Joanne Vance, and Chair Sheelin McKeagney stated: “Good health does not start in a doctor’s surgery. It starts in our homes, our schools, jobs, and in our communities. For over 10 years in Northern Ireland, the gap between the healthiest and least healthy people has widened.

“Rising bills for food, housing and energy continue to press heavily on everyday life. When life is tougher for children and young people, families and communities, health suffers, making to harder to keep well and stay out of hospital.

“In this landscape, CDHN’s distinct place is to deliberately mind the gap between regional policy and grassroots knowledge and action. This commitment drove our year’s work.”

Over the past year, CDHN invested a total of £504,500 into communities across NI, awarding a total of 65 grants to community development projects throughout the region. This work was done through our BCPP and Elevate projects, in partnership with the Department of Health (DoH) and the Public Health Agency (PHA).

Through our flagship programmes, we have continued to take a regional approach to supporting locally co-designed programmes that strengthen cross-sector collaboration and tackle health inequalities.

We also hosted 16 events throughout the year, which saw an attendance of over 460 people, and there was an attendance over 1,020 people to the 15 external events CDHN staff spoke at or facilitated. And we are delighted to welcome six new supporters to our membership of 2,472 individuals.

Commenting on the success of this year, CDHN’s Director and Chair, both acknowledged the work of our Board and team in making these achievements possible.

“Our heartfelt appreciation goes to our Board and incredible team for their dedication, expertise and quality work throughout the year. We continued to work together with communities to tackle poverty and health inequalities. We progressed new partnership projects for equitable access to health and social services,” they added.

These are just some of the highlights you can find along with more in our Annual Report here.