NextThreeDays: Event Display

Community Voices: Avila Kilmurray - Community Foundation Builder from Northern Ireland
Venue: Old Dominion Ballroom (Squires), Blacksburg
Directions: Google Map Link
Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Time: 6:30 - 8:00 PM
Event Types: Speaking Engagements
Cost: Free
Description:
On Wednesday, April 18, Community Voices and the Virginia Tech Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships will present Avila Kilmurray, peacebuilder and community foundation leader from Northern Ireland in a 6:30 pm program on the Virginia Tech campus.

Dr. Kilmurray will deliver the Virginia Tech Ut Prosim Lecture in the Old Dominion Ballroom at Squires Student Center. Faculty, staff, students, and the community are encouraged to attend this event. Her talk will be on: Peacebuilding & Partnerships: Reflections & Lessons.

Avila Kilmurray has a distinguished international career in areas related to social justice work, global peace making, and the Northern Ireland peace process. Previously she was coordinator of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action’s Rural Action Project, a European Union Second Anti-Poverty Programme initiative.

In 1990, she was appointed the first Women's Officer for the Ireland Transport & General Workers' Union. Avila was active in establishing the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. She was a member of the Coalition’s negotiating team for the historic Belfast Agreement. She currently sits on the board of the Global Fund for Community Foundations, which supports community building throughout the developing world.

The Community Foundation of Northern Ireland is an independent charitable grant-making organization, whose mission is to "drive social change". Avila has served as the director for 18 years and has a particular interest in community development, peacebuilding, and women’s issues.

Avila Kilmurray, Director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland since 1994, became the first ever recipient of the Raymond Georis Prize for Innovative Philanthropy in Europe for the Foundation’s ‘extraordinary contribution towards alleviating human suffering in the context of decades of violent political conflict and its considerable record of achievement in building peace in Northern Ireland’.

The Community Voices speakers are engaged in fostering work that strengthens community. Their leadership includes the capacity to speak cogently and concisely about their experiences, to tell stories that are revealing of their work, and to present ideas for change, ideas that matter.

For more information, visit: http://www.ipg.vt.edu/News/Events/CommunityVoices.html