The Community Development Practitioners Forum Echo Network is a new online community of practice for anyone using and promoting community development approaches to address health inequalities across Northern Ireland, to network, engage in peer learning, and share best practice.
The Forum is co-ordinated by Community Development and Health Network (CDHN) through the Elevate programme, funded by the Public Health Agency (PHA).
The Forum is a Project ECHO network. ECHO provides a platform for collaborative learning that encourages peer-to-peer support and recognises the value of working across disciplines and sectors. To find out more about Project ECHO please click here.
Who is it for?
The forum is open to anyone using and promoting community development approaches to address health inequalities across Northern Ireland. This includes voluntary and community sector staff and volunteers, and public sector workers in local government and health trusts.
The Purpose of our Forum
To create a safe space for networking, building trust and relationships, and promoting collaboration across sectors
To increase knowledge, skills, and confidence to strengthen local action on health inequalities, through peer learning, sharing challenges and best practice
To encourage collective problem solving by establishing key issues and collaboratively working through solutions
To explore how people apply community development principles and standards to create change
To promote participation and inclusion by sharing ways of engaging marginalised, disadvantaged, isolated and unheard groups and increase their membership on the forum
Session Dates
20th May 2026
Understanding Community Development purpose, values and processes
1st July 2026
Who gets to be healthy? Understanding Health Inequalities and their impact in our communities.
30th September 2026
Listening to Lived Experience: Community Action on Health Inequalities.