WHEELWORKS FUTURE FOCUS —
WHEELWORKS FUTURE FOCUS —
The Future Focus programme aims to create more accessible shared spaces and communities. It was designed to take outreach and detached youth work in a new direction by utilising our unique mobile vehicle the ChillCart.
By engaging with young people out on the streets and providing a safe space for creativity and conversation, the programme helped contribute to a decrease in anti-social behaviour, addressed multiple sectarian barriers and cultivated healthier relationships in a shared space environment.
In 2021/22 we ran two projects in the following locations; Glengormley (Antrim and Newtownabbey council area) and in Portadown/Craigavon (Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon council area). 130 young people - typically thought of as ‘disengaged’ - came together and participated in a range of games and creative activities including arts and craft, animation, Illustration, digital music, and virtual reality.
AT A GLANCE
2 Projects
8 Cross-community activity days
11 Creative activities
13 ChillCart pop-ups
15 Artists/Facilitators
50 Pizzas!
130+ Young people
GLENGORMLEY
Glengormley is an area that homes a mix of nationalist and unionist families, yet it is still divided by sectarian divisions which continue to impact the third generation of young people affected by the Troubles. Prior to our project, meetings and reports by local council members and the Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP) highlighted a worrying rise in anti-social behaviour fuelled by fights and territorial tensions across neighbouring communities, but particularly in the Lillian Bland Community Park in Glengormley.
Our initial street-based Outreach Work (October – January) built connections with over 65 young people between the ages of 12 and 16. We were supported by youth, community workers and volunteers from BYTES, Queens Park Women’s Centre and Glengormley Believes in Youth.
During the next stage, young people were invited to come together and work in a more structured way on a cross community basis. During these sessions we used creative arts/technology led activities as a tool to begin conversations and explore concerns.
The ChillCart provided a safe space and really help the young people openly discuss ingrained cultural biases while working together on the concept of a shared future and space.
There were fun trips and experiences such as ice skating and pizza parties and a shared Celebration Event - a mini-rave!
Overall this project fostered connections which enabled good relations conversations with targeted young people throughout outreach, individual group work, creative activities, and cross community events. Importantly, through this project, we were able to engage and work directly with 7 young people who were involved in ASB offences in the community.
PORTADOWN / CRAIGAVON
We partnered with St Mary’s Youth Club, Portadown and Drumgor Detached Youth Work Project (DDYWP), Craigavon. These groups had been facing multiple barriers including the many impacts of lockdowns. St Mary’s was struggling to bring older teenagers back to the youth centre after Covid-19 restrictions and DDYWP, as a detached group, was struggling to enrol those most in need on to centre based programmes. These are mixed areas but sectarian tensions remain high and intercultural tensions are on the rise. Prior to partnering, within these groups there had been a rise in organised fights and territorial tensions, particularly within Portadown.
The support of the ChillCart allowed the groups to not only meet and engage young people ‘out and about’ in the community but also provided a space for games, activities and refreshments.
During the initial outreach work, the ChillCart visited over 7 different locations in Craigavon and Portadown raising awareness of the project and other services available from partner groups. The initial outreach engaged over 70 young people with 32 carrying on to Stage 2 of Future Focus.
WHAT WE LEARNED
The ChillCart was a space that young people felt comfortable in and the digital technology experiences were a big success in helping to engage with the young people.
The Virtual Reality headsets group work with the Tilt Brush (360 degrees painting) app and King Spray (graffiti app), helped to facilitate a good relations discussion on murals and street art which really kept the young people engaged and creatively stimulated.
The young people also experimented with Augmented Reality, which encouraged good relations conversations concerning the use of flags with different groups of communities. They then designed alternative flags for their community using the Quiver app on the iPads which went down well as none of the young people had used it before.
When one artist observed how the “VR was very popular, but it was obvious that they were creating artworks with a sectarian slant”, this in turn provided the community youth workers and WheelWorks Youth Engagement Officers the opportunity to open up conversations and address engrained sectarianism.
The young people were introduced to 360 film recording by WheelWorks artist Brian Bryne and captured footage of the cross community sessions so they could be shared at the Celebration Event. This was a big hit with the young people, and there is great potential to expand working with 360 filming and VR artforms.
FEEDBACK FOR THE PROJECT WAS OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE — let’s look at what they said:
CONCLUSION
The use of the ChillCart as a mobile social space was very positively embraced by young people. Here they could meet and participate in creative diversionary activities as an alternative to territorial and sectarian anti-social behaviour.
It was clear throughout this project how, when participants embraced the alternative creative opportunities, this encouraged greater personal understanding, reinforcing that everyone has a contribution in the changes and can enjoy each other’s company, and make new friends bringing communities together in a shared environment.
The programme is supported by the Executive Office’s Central Good Relations Fund delivering under the ‘Together: Building a United Community’ Strategy, which is working to improve community relations across NI as we build on our commitment to move towards a more united and shared community.
