Future Focus 2022-23
In 2022/23 we ran two projects in Belfast (Belfast City Council area) and in Portadown/Craigavon (Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon council area). Around 190 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.
Belfast Partner Groups: Glenparent Youth Group | North Belfast Area Project | Colin Gaels
Craigavon & Portadown Groups: Gilford Youth | Scotch Street Youth & Community Centre
2 PROJECTS
12 CROSS-COMMUNITY ACTIVITY DAYS
54 CREATIVE SESSIONS
28 CHILLCART POP-UPS
16 ARTISTS
500+ Hot Chocolates
over 900 YOUNG PEOPLE
Belfast
West and north Belfast are both areas that are home to segregated nationalist and unionist communities, with many families living in and close to interface areas. The composition of the interface areas means young people tend not to interact, which produces negative perceptions and mistrust of the ‘other’ community, hampers the desire to cross interface boundaries, and creates a climate of fear and avoidance. Similar risks face all young people living in interface zones, including recruitment by paramilitaries, gang culture, antisocial behaviour, and violence - both sectarian and non-sectarian (Education Authority Area Plan 2018 – 2020).
Both these areas have high level of disadvantaged and vulnerable young people partaking in risky activities, and a history of territorial and sectarian divisions, which is still impacting the third generation of young people affected by the Troubles (as evident from the creative workshops). Prior to the project, a meeting was held between WheelWorks, council members, and the local PCSP to highlight a worrying rise in anti-social behaviour (ASB), and how this project could help in targeting specific young people highlighted for recent ASB offences.
Our initial street-based outreach work (September–November) built connections with over 173 young people between 9 and 16 years old. We were supported by youth and community workers, and volunteers from GlenParent Youth Group, North Belfast Area Project, HAMMER Youth Club, Glencairn Youth, and Colin Gaels during the project.
During the next stage, 66 young people aged between 11 and 16 came together and worked in a more structured way on a cross-community basis. During these sessions, we used creative arts/technology activities as a tool to begin conversations and explore concerns. ChillCart provided a safe space, and helped the young people openly discuss ingrained cultural biases while working together on the concept of shared space. There were fun trips to the cinema, bowling, minigolf, WheelWorks TechStudio, as well as pizza parties and a a mini-rave for the shared celebration event.
Overall, this project fostered connections which enabled good relations and conversations with targeted young people. Importantly, we were able to engage and work directly with nine young people involved in ASB offences in the community.
PORTADOWN / CRAIGAVON
This year, we partnered with Gilford Youth, Craigavon and Scotch Street Youth & Community Centre (SSYCC), Portadown. Both groups encountered multiple barriers to the many impacts of Covid-19 lockdowns and the mental health crisis that NI young people face. Public and social housing in Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon is overwhelmingly segregated, leading to inter-community tensions affecting young people, social exclusion, and anti-social behaviour, with 88% of parents in Gilford reporting insufficient activities for young people. Studies show that young people in these areas are coming under the influence of paramilitaries as Police Recorded Security Situation Statistics (Feb 2019) highlight how dissident violence remains a concern.
The presence of ChillCart enabled the groups to meet and engage with hard-to-reach and at-risk young people out and about in the community. It provided a safe and welcoming space for good relations conversations, games, artistic activities and refreshments. The initial outreach engaged over 132 young people, with 62 carrying on to stage 2 of Future Focus.
WHAT WE LEARNed
ChillCart offered an alternative to territorial and sectarian antisocial behaviour, which young people embraced, and which proved to be a major factor in successfully engaging with the young people on their terms. The young people relaxed by participating in digital and visual arts workshops, playing together on the PlayStation, and engaging in informal chats with the facilitators and community youth workers. Throughout the various outreach sessions, the young people presented complex issues and significant levels of ingrained sectarianism and paramilitary influence during conversations with the youth workers and WheeWorks Arts Youth Engagement Officers, and this was evident in the sectarianism expressed in their artworks. A flexible and adaptive approach to establishing relationships with the young people was required to maintain appropriate boundaries and ensure positive engagement
Feedback from one artist stated that the ‘T-shirt making was a big hit, but some of the young people were encouraging each other to create artworks with a sectarian/paramilitary slant – they avoided telling us what the abbreviations stood for, but it was obvious that it related to youth divisions of the paramilitaries’. This provided the community youth workers and WheelWorks Youth Engagement Officer the opportunity to open up conversations and address engrained sectarianism.
The young people experimented with Augmented Reality apps which aided good relations conversations about the use of flags with diverse groups of communities, challenging the young people to consider alternative flags for their community using the Quiver AR app on iPads. They also created games on an AR games design app, which was well received by both groups of young people, helping to facilitate a relaxed space for conversation between the young people. All commented that they had never worked with either app before.
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. Future Focus has successfully intervened and connected with the right young people for this project, providing a bridge for the youth groups to reach out to at-risk youth and begin building trusting and nurturing relations that will support them in participating in future cross-community activities.
FEEDBACK FOR THE PROJECT WAS OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE — LET’S LOOK AT WHAT THEY SAID:
but what did our young people think?
This programme was 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.
