Belfast Peace III Phase II Proposed Plan

Overview

Community Cohesion Networks

The Housing Executive’s existing Shared Neighbourhood Programme currently engages with areas that are currently mixed in order to protect their character and secure their shared status.

Building on Phase I this project would aim to develop further shared local area networks in areas that are not currently shared but which could be developed in a ‘sharing between neighbourhoods’ model that aims to diffuse tensions at segregated locations and promote community cohesion. The programme would continue to develop Local Area Networks where people choose to live with others regardless of their religion or race, in a neighbourhood that is safe and welcoming to all, and threatening to no-one.

Mending the city’s scars, Indicative budget: £870,500

The proposed implementation of packaged environmental improvements in targeted areas of the city follows on from pilot activity under the Arterial Routes Programme. This work seeks to transform the environment to create enhanced spaces through a combination of public realm, art and environmental works.

The individual projects are developed from focussed consultation and engagement with local communities. The experience in the pilot and local regeneration initiatives has confirmed that the potential exists to continue the work whereby projects could be developed for approximately 5 areas across Belfast.

Creating shared spaces on the playing field, Indicative budget: £750,000

The aim of the project is to employ a carefully considered balance of capital enhancement and community programming to engage targeted groups, and in particular young people, as well as the wider public in order to proactively support relationship-building and deliberately increase interaction between communities. It is proposed that this will be achieved through:

• the development of a third generation (3G) ‘hybrid’ Gaelic games and soccer pitch and associated facilities on the site of existing under-used soccer pitches; and
• provision of programmes incorporating use of the above facilities which will increase access to, and inclusion in, sport – focusing on anti-sectarianism and anti-racism.

Such a project in Belfast would have the potential to transfer to other areas within Northern Ireland and other regions dealing with the legacies of violent confict and communal separation.

Employability access programme, Indicative budget: £390,000

Based on the findings of some initial work on mobility challenges, this project will seek to further investigate barriers to mobility for people in contested communities and to develop creative approaches to helping them access employment and development opportunities outside of their communities. Using the framework established for the Titanic Quarter memorandum of understanding, this project will consider how employability, business, community and tourism development initiatives can target specific areas of the city and encourage greater take-up of available opportunities, ensuring that new city spaces are accessible to all.

City of neighbourhoods through integrated neighbourhood planning, Indicative budget: £450,000

The aim for this project is to apply ‘total place’ principles and connect neighbourhoods through a series of linked shared space neighbourhood plans which facilitate and promote habitual interaction and relationship-building.

Central to the ‘total place’ agenda is who the people access their services with and where they access them. This project seeks to apply the ‘total place’ principles in Belfast as a contested city, and use mainstream service delivery to transform segregation. The programme would operate citywide with key anchor locations in north, south, east and west of the city. The exact locations will be determined with partners.

City of neighbourhoods through health and well-being, Indicative budget: £370,000

A series of inter-generational health and well-being programmes to promote community cohesion, addressing sectarianism and racism. To increase habitual interaction and neighbourhood attractiveness through horticultural and sports activity programmes.

This project will develop a series of community gardens across four neighbourhoods in the city and promote them as connected shared spaces through programmes and management. The exact locations will be determined with partners and communities.

It will also engage younger people in a ‘Respect through Sport’ programme across a number of leisure centres in the city. This part of the project will seek to connect young people across the city through sport and workshops, looking at identity, sectarianism and heritage. From this initial engagement, the young people will be supported to connect with older people in their area through community gardening and well-being programmes. This sustained engagement will facilitate their ongoing involvement in positive relations in their local neighbourhood as well as across neighbourhoods in the city.

Transforming contested space, North and west household recycling centre – a new shared space, Indicative budget: £750,000

The objectives of the household recycling centre (HRC) project are to:

• design and build a state of the art HRC on the former Mackie’s site by December 2013 with a shared space ethos;

Transforming contested space - tackling sectarianism and racism, Indicative budget: £300,000

This project aims to support communities in the positive celebration of their cultural heritage and identity and to promote their neighbourhood as open and welcoming to all visitors.

Specific objectives are to:

• support local community led cultural networks, through effective partnerships with
• civic bodies, in developing good practice regarding contested space in order to reduce
• manifestations of sectarianism or racism and patterns of territoriality i.e. murals, fags,
• bonfires;
• work directly with and support local communities to facilitate positive improvements in their cultural expression and heritage in areas such as bonfires, community art, fags and emblems;
• provide statutory agencies with an effective locally based mechanism of engagement with communities to address perceived negative physical cultural manifestations; and
• develop a framework for the celebration of identity and heritage in open and welcoming neighbourhoods across the city.

Interfaces and mediation programme, Indicative budget: £150,000

The programme will focus on conflict resolution and mediation in line with the requirements of Priority 1.1 of the Peace III Programme around interface areas in Belfast and build upon work under Phase I around mediation skills training and the development of local consultation and engagement models.

The programme will continue to develop a culture of mediation in the city through a series of connected neighbourhood mediation resources. The main medium through which this will be achieved will be through the creation of a number of locally based cultural networks.

Each network will be resourced with part-time coordination of one and a half days per month, programme materials, capacity building costs, training costs and project activity costs.

Belfast sectarian and racism tension monitoring and response project, Indicative budget: £600,000

The primary purpose of tension monitoring is to reduce the impact and number of actual or potential community tensions at the interface and across neighbourhoods in the city. This project is based on a strategy of establishing a multi-agency approach to improve communication, information sharing and community engagement to manage and respond rapidly to community tensions before they rise to such an extent that it results in unrest and violence.

The project would support a monitoring process and a rapid intervention approach within neighbourhoods through the strategic coordination and deployment of resources at times of increased tension or crisis.

Youth engagement programme, Indicative budget: £350,000

This programme aims to improve the quality of life for communities in interface areas by working with marginalised young men in a partnership programme which provides hope and purpose and diverts involvement in gang and paramilitary activity.

The proposed programme would engage with ‘hard to reach’ young men involved in, or on the periphery of, local paramilitary or gang activity to reduce incidents of violence and create alternative pathways to improve their life chances to:

• deter involvement in gang, dissident and paramilitary activity;
• infuence young men’s attitudes to violence and sectarianism;
• address mental health issues including youth suicide (potentially connected to a society emerging from confict); and
• develop community resolution of, and resilience to, gang violence and rioting.

Activities will involve a range of interventions including:

• assertive outreach which groups of hard to reach young males by a team of highly skilled staff;
• mentoring programmes;
• connections to schools, training providers and probation services;
• targeted responses for families at critical times in the family’s life or its wider social circle (for example conviction to, or release from, custody);
• targeted responses for communities at critical times, e.g commemorations, parades, protests;
• development of inter-agency strategies to sustain long term disengagement from gang and paramilitary activity; and

• creation of an agreed comprehensive framework of interventions to reduce violence.

Shared cultural space, Migrant forum, Indicative budget: £150,000

Aim: To celebrate and give place to the different backgrounds and traditions of the citizens of Belfast and build a collective responsibility to ensure there is a place for identities other than our own. The aim of the migrant and minority ethnic project is to:

• improve interagency cooperation within Belfast in addressing issues facing migrant and minority ethnic communities;
• improve awareness of migrant worker and minority ethnic issues within the council;
• to work with other council departments to improve delivery of services to minority ethnic communities;
• support the development of community led initiatives that generate understanding and collaboration between new and host communities;
• support migrant and minority ethnic communities to settle and support settled communities to adapt to change in their community; and
• support the employment related needs of migrant workers through a cross-border support programme.

Council has established a Migrant Forum in Phase I to encourage inter-agency cooperation in addressing issues facing migrant communities in Belfast. This Forum has established a local action plan for Belfast on issues relating to migration.

Work in phase I also includes a cross-border trade union employment advice programme; migration awareness training and diversity programme delivered within and outside the council and, a training for trainers programme to encourage a wider roll-out of the migration awareness training.

City of festivals, Indicative budget: £420,000

The vision for the City of Festivals II programme is to deliver a high profle, city wide, shared cultural space programme in partnership with Belfast City Festival’s Forum. Key spaces (existing and new) including City Hall, Custom House Square, North Foreshore and council parks will be utilised to stage cultural programmes which maximise community participation and attendance. With over 100 community based festivals taking place in Belfast every year, the City of Festivals programme will be extended into the 2011 – 2013 period to further support the city in achieving a shared cultural space agenda.

There will also be a series of four connected neighbourhood based events, located in key public spaces across the city, encouraging people to travel to welcoming, safe and attractive destinations across the city.2012 represents an important year for the city in that it will see the Titanic centenary, a number of major capital projects coming on stream and the London Olympics. Peace III support will allow communities across the city to engage in the 2012 celebrations and instil confidence and pride across the city, regardless of direct association to Titanic or Olympics.

Creative Legacies II Indicative budget: £300,000

Creative Legacies, an audience development and outreach initiative, will use arts to contribute to the development of Belfast as a shared cultural space.

Development and outreach projects will be delivered by a consortia of arts, heritage and community organisations, and headed by a lead partner. These will be selected by tender and a minimum of 15 consortia will be awarded a maximum of £20,000 per project.

The programme also will include public art projects; Creative Legacies Forum and training and skills development elements.

Roots of Empathy Indicative budget: £165,000

Roots of Empathy (ROE) is an evidence-based not-for-proft programme that has shown a dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression among school children by raising social and emotional competence and increasing empathy.

The programme will be rolled out in schools across the Belfast City Council area, for children aged 8 or 9 (Primary 5). The reason for the programme being focused on this age group is that according to Queen’s University, primary 5 represents the peak age for victimisation in a school setting and it would also complement the start of key stage 2 in the NI Curriculum (Primary). The programme will run through the academic year.

The programme will be delivered in each school by trained instructors, who will mainly be sourced from the consortia organisations. Each instructor, who may be a health visitor, a classroom assistant, a community worker, a worker with Barnardo’s or one of the other partners will undertake four days of intensive training to become certifed Roots of Empathy instructors. The programme will include outreach work to ensure that local community representatives avail of opportunities to become trained instructors.

The Project will run a major community engagement programme which will develop capacity and emphasis the shared nature of experience in Belfast. It will also iteratively support and be supported by the proposed City Hall display.

My Belfast, Indicative budget: £280,000

A second, connected element is the development of a graphically-based display, working title ‘My Belfast’, to be presented within the City Hall, but referring and directing people to the rest of the city. Whilst aimed primarily at citizens, it is also expected that the display will attract considerable tourist interest and act as a cultural orientation tool, which has been a long-identifed need.

Communities Make Places, Indicative budget: £400,000

The aim of the Communities Make Places Peace III project is to work with partners to spread the economic and social benefits of tourism across the city through strong community engagement and cohesion. The Project would support the following activity:

Grants programme

This programme would build on the success of the phase I small grants programme and aims to provide much needed funding for voluntary and community sector organisations who deliver programmes right at the heart of local communities across the city.

It is proposed that the upper limit for small grants is raised which will mean fewer grants but with larger amounts e.g. 10 at £100,000 or 20 at £50,000. As in the first phase consortia applications with a clearly identifed lead partner are to be encouraged.

The overarching theme of the programme would be that of Shared Organisational Space to promote collaborative working. Projects would focus on the key target groups of the PEACE III Programme which would include youth and early years work with related intergenerational work and projects led by the women’s sector.