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Growing a Shared City

The council has secured additional funding from the PEACE III Programme, under the theme which aims to build the key institutional capacities required for a shared society.

The PEACE III programme is managed by the Special EU Programme Body and the project, entitled Growing a Shared City, has a budget of £305,000 and will run until December 2012.

It is a learning and development programme which will explore the policy and capacity required in the council and its partner agencies to effect change in Belfast’s divided society.

The need for the project was identified in three key areas. They are:

Exploring Engagement lunchtime seminars

From October 2011 to May 2012, we are hosting a series of lunchtime seminars to explore the 'who, what, where, when and why' of engagement.

Each month, we will invite speakers from a variety of backgrounds to explore different aspects of engagement – for example, how it is related to service delivery, partnership working and other topics.

The next seminar is:

Community Planning in Belfast
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Reception Hall, Belfast City Hall
12.30pm – 1.30pm

The last in our series of lunchtime seminars will focus on the development of community planning in Belfast.

With the Northern Ireland Assembly’s stated intention to introduce community planning as part of the reform of local government, this session will explore the opportunities and challenges of community planning including the lessons learned from the BIG Lottery funded Belfast Community Planning pilot and provide an update on our next steps in developing community planning in Belfast.

Register

Booking is essential and lunch is served. To register, please RSVP by 21 May to:

Mark McCloskey
Good Relations Unit
Email: mccloskeym@belfastcity.gov.uk
Tel: 028 9027 0587

April 2012 seminar

April’s seminar focused on the topic of human trafficking, identified by the PSNI as a growing organised crime issue in Northern Ireland.

The seminar was designed to help to raise awareness of the issues around human trafficking in NI and to enable participants to identify the signs and indicators associated with trafficking.

Roger McVicker from Migrant Help, the lead agency in providing support to rescued victims, and Philip Marshall from the PSNI both offered presentations and responses to the questions on issues relating to detection

March 2012 seminar

March’s seminar was titled ‘A Titanic Year for Belfast' and featured a trio of speakers. Lisa McCartney, Titanic Quarter Project Coordinator, outlined the scope of the community engagement work. Reverend Chris Bennett, Chaplain of the Dock at Titanic Quarter and ‘Titanic Ambassador’, reflected on the speed of change at Titanic Quarter and how these changes have affected perceptions and beliefs throughout the city.

The session concluded with Gerry Copeland, City Events Manager, who outlinde some of the stunning events that will take place in Belfast as part of the Titanic 2012 Festival.

February 2012 seminar

February's speaker was Madeleine Leonard.

Madeleine is Professor of Sociology at Queens’ University, Belfast. In this session Madeleine presented findings from a recent project on teenagers’ perceptions of Belfast as a divided or shared city.

Louise Monaghan and Michelle Hand, from the Council, also outlined the role of engagement and collaboration in youth engagement as well as interface regeneration in the city.

January 2012 seminar

January's speaker was Lisa McElherron.

Lisa is Head of Public Affairs at the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA). This session focused upon the need for community engagement, it gave an insight into the opportunities and challenges of partnership working and provided information on the recently Concordat between Government and the voluntary/community sector.

December 2011 seminar

December’s speakers were Neil Symington and Lorraine Wallace.

Neil is Participation Development Worker with the Northern Ireland Youth Forum and Lorraine is Children and Young People’s Co-ordinator for the Council. Their session focused upon young people and why engagement matters. Together they provided an insight into the types of engagement which work and the pitfalls to avoid.

November 2011 seminar

Eileen Beamish and Donal McDade

Eileen is director of the Social Research Centre and Donal is director of Social Market Research.

With decades of direct experience in the field of engagement between them, they are aware of the many challenges involved. Their session explored practical ways to make engagement meaningful, insightful, robust and economical.

October 2011 seminar

October's speaker was Dr Barbara McCabe, a teaching fellow in Community Development and Community Education at Queen's University, Belfast.

Through practical examples, Barbara outlined the links between engagement, empowerment and cohesion in community development.

More information

For more information about the Growing a Shared City project, contact:

Good Relations Unit
Chief Executive's Department
Belfast City Hall
Belfast
BT1 5GS

Tel: 028 9032 0202
Email: mccloskeym@belfastcity.gov.uk