Introduction

We are proud to present the Extern Corporate Plan for the period 2010-13. The new Plan builds on the work of our previous corporate plan, 2010 Vision, through which we set challenging objectives and built significantly on our service provision through expanding established programmes and development of innovative new services in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Extern and Extern Ireland work in partnership across the island of Ireland to enable people who are vulnerable and marginalised within the community to change their lives. We believe that people have the  potential to change and our services aim to build capability and capacity for them to do so. Our overall goal over the period of this plan is to deliver improved outcomes for our service users.

Through this planning process we have consulted internally with our staff and Board, and externally with our stakeholders. We have considered the changing needs in our community, our relationships with partners, and looked at the economic and political environment we will be operating in. The needs of our service users will be core to our business and will influence our direction for both continuing and new services during this period. Although we recognise there will be many challenges ahead, we are confident that we have the skills and capacity to meet these challenges.

In providing positive change to service users we will work closely with commissioners and add value through partnership working. We will develop our organisational capacity to underpin delivery, and will measure our outputs and outcomes to demonstrate our efficiency and effectiveness in delivering improved outcomes for service users.

Through this plan we will continue to contribute to the building of stronger, safer and more inclusive communities across the island of Ireland.