People Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin said,
“We are absolutely delighted to hear the Community Crisis Intervention Service has received £500,000 in core funding.
This is great news for anyone dependent on the service, workers and our city.
This funding will protect the CCIS for the next three years and end the repeated cycle of threatened closure.
The political establishment repeatedly dropped the ball on making sure the CCIS would be protected and able to make plans for expansion. It was an unacceptable situation for service users and workers.
There’s no doubt this service would have been lost without the initiative of workers and people power action.
We face multiple challenges. Mental health and deprivation are two of our biggest. As we argued at the time, closing CCIS would have sent the wrong message to the city amidst all the challenges the pandemic has brought.
There’s a clear lesson that people power is the key way to get the attention of decision makers. We can’t assume the Stormont Executive will follow through on any commitments made to Derry. We have decades of evidence to demonstrate this. The rules of the political establishment aren’t going to deliver the changes we need.”
