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Date: 02 Mar 2023
Young people from Forth Meadow Community Greenway’s PEACE IV-supported Youth Engagement & Civic Education project marked completion of the project at a special event at Crumlin Road Gaol recently
From November 2021, Youth Link NI engaged with 17 different youth organisations and schools, working with nearly 400 young people aged 10-24 years. The project supported the young people to take part in good relations programmes and engage with community development through their own social action projects.
Coming from Protestant, Catholic and BAME communities, they participated in youth work programmes that explored the core themes of good relations, active citizenship, social action, personal and social development alongside community development.
The groups completed 60 hours of face-to-face sessions, alongside trips, residentials and social action projects that directly impacted the local communities along the Forth Meadow Community Greenway. They took part in residentials to outdoor education centres including Greenhill YMCA, Carlingford, Corrymeela, East Coast Adventure Centre and White Park Bay.
They also had the chance to plan, facilitate and evaluate a social action project, examples including a Community Fun Day where they organised games, activities, and a BBQ with the aim of promoting health and wellbeing and community connections. Some of the young people also completed an OCN qualification in peer mentoring, diversity and good relations.
Councillor John Kyle, Chair of Belfast City Council’s Shared City Partnership, praised the young people and groups taking part in the PEACE IV Youth Engagement & Civic Education project.
“The aim of the Forth Meadow Community Greenway project is to help promote connections between young people, reduce isolation, division or prejudice and to increase engagement to take part in peacebuilding, conflict transformation activities for the long-term benefit of the city.
“All of these young people helped to promote peacebuilding, build positive cross community relationships and engage with new people in different areas. Congratulations to them all on completion of this wonderful project.”
The project engaged with groups located along the Forth Meadow Greenway, and included:
- Black Mountain Action group
- Bluehouses Youth for Christ
- Boys’ Model School
- Clonard Youth Centre
- Corpus Christi Youth Centre
- Forthspring Youth Matters project.
- Glencairn Youth Initiatives
- Hammer Youth Centre
- Hazelwood Integrated College
- Holy Trinity Youth Centre
- Malone Integrated College
- Mountainhill Youth Centre
- Nubia Youth Centre
- St Genevieve’s High School
- St Peter’s Immaculata Youth centre
- Townsend Street Youth Centre
- Youth Initiatives NI
Forth Meadow Community Greenway is a new £5.1 million EU PEACE IV-supported project to connect existing open spaces in north and west Belfast along a 12km route from Clarendon Playing Fields to the new Transport Hub in the city centre, via Glencairn, Springfield Road, Falls Park and Bog Meadows.
The programme was part of Belfast’s PEACE IV Action Plan financed through the European Union and managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). Match-funding for the Action Plan has been provided by The Executive Office and the Department of Rural and Community Development.
For more information on Forth Meadow Community Greenway, visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/forthmeadow