Programme and activities
The strategy is consistent with the T:BUC themes and identifies both a long-term vision for the city with short-term targets, shifts and refinement of structures and processes. The strategy tackles head-on the significant issues identified in the consultation process, such as community dislocation, rise in racist incidents, Islamophobic incidents and violence, and ongoing need to support positive cultural expression.
The strategy sets good relations in the city within a wider lense of cohesion and integration. This wider lense affords not just a vision and set of activities that meet needs, it also allows for a response that energises all sectors and other public agencies, as well as all sections of the council, to be more involved in the good relations agenda. This is what the strategy calls a Whole Community, Whole Council approach.
We are committing to developing proactive and practical cohesion targets over the next 10 years, consistent with the Belfast Agenda timeline.
However, we also will develop strands that are generational with aspirations for 2050. By 2050 we have set a vision for Belfast to be significantly less segregated, significantly more culturally diverse, engaging all sections of the community in cultural expression and celebrating all ethnicities, religions and identities.
We are committed to delivering the strategy within a transformative rather than performative framework. That means The Shared City Partnership and Senior Managers within the council robustly challenge all of those contributing to the delivery of the strategy including staff and elected members of the council, and other public agencies, in deciding on funding and in organising events, to ask whether or not activities, words and deeds that are being planned and delivered, fit criteria to be developed on what making a meaningful and transformative difference looks like.
We will not be going through the motions with activities and funding projects for the sake of funding them – they will have to prove that they are making a contribution to a more cohesive Belfast consistent with the criteria and indicators set.
The strategy recognises, from feedback during the consultation process, the successes that have have been achieved in many projects and programmes supported. These are further built on in the strategy such as supporting cultural expression, the migrant forum, and small grants funding.
However, this is a strategy that changes what and how we deliver good relations. It is a new iteration for Belfast that goes beyond good relations toward a significantly more cohesive Belfast by 2035 and beyond.
As such, this Good Relations strategy includes:
- New long-term targets for cohesion in Belfast looking to 2035 and beyond.
- A refocused and reinvigorated Shared City Partnership whose main purpose will be to develop new cohesion indicators for the city and measure their achievement on a bi-annual basis.
- A pilot three-year small grants funding programme.
- A new focus on building trust between communities and with key public agencies.
- Capacity building that, taking account of changing demographics and the challenges for decision-makers, focuses on cultural competence enhancement for all decision-makers in public agencies including the council.
- An audit of all council activities that support good relations to assess their contribution to good relations and cohesion outcomes.
The strategy will promote programmes consistent with the themes of T:BUC and the identified five strategic pillars for cohesion in the city, building a positive peacebuilding, transformative society.
| T:BUC theme | Five strategic pillars | Activity or programme | New activities |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Four | All Five | Good Relations Small grants programme for cohesion and belonging | Introduce a three-year grant allocation on a pilot basis for some grants, complementing existing one-year small grant awards. Those pilot grants will be especially helpful for projects that require a lead-in or additionaol planning. That may include a new theme for social justice issues tackled across interfaces or related to planning and developing new approaches to cultural expression including other communities. |
| Cultural Expression | Good relations Trust Capacity | St. Patrick’s Day civic events programme | A renewed effort to include more people from traditionally unionist backgrounds and newcomer communities to create even greater inclusion in this flagship event in the city. |
| Cultural Expression | Good relations Trust Capacity | Positive cultural expression Beacons Programme | Continue to engage with communities to build on the progress of supporting positive cultural expression including the deployment of bonfire beacons. It will proactively seek to establish better relationships between communities and key agencies. It will also explore good practice visits. |
| Shared Community | Trust | Building trust and celebrating an intercultural future | Will embrace significant activities within the existing Civic Engagement programme but target activities and events that will build greater trust between communities and with public agencies. Statutory partners on the Shared City Partnership should be heavily engaged along with internal Council work streams such as the Policing and Community Safety Partnership and community planning. This should be additional to existing activities. |
| Safe Community | Social justice Good relations Trust | TIME – The Inclusive Minority Ethnic programme | To include continued facilitation of the Migrant Forum, delivery of activities to support integration of refugees and asylum seekers, and support local communities to develop integration activities. The programme will also target inclusion of people from those communities that feel particularly pressurised by change or a sense of loss; and include a response to misinformed and disinformed social media content, and attacks on newcomer communities. It will explore good practce visits. |
| Shared Community | Social justice Trust Openness Capacity | Interface Community Engagement (ICE) | While focusing on interface communities as with an existing programme, the focus will change to seeking to build a consensus on key social justice issues affecting interface areas on a bespoke basis and at times developing a ‘FAIR Share’ modelled intervention where a ‘Common Needs’ approach will be developed and there is a requirement for funding activities to include communities on either side of an interface. It is likely the agreed social justice issues will include access to green space, educational under-achievement employability, physical activity or mental health. |
| Children and young people | Good relations Trust | Shared Education and Relationships with Agencies | The programme will work in schools with students and with uniformed and non-uniformed youth organisations, as well as team leaders and staff, to enhance young people’s understanding of other communities and the support available to them from other agencies and the council. Programmes should be transformative and include activity on challenging issues as well as common needs, and not merely based on developing contact. There will be a particular exploration of the impact of online and social media impact on young people, and efforts to develop their understanding of that impact. |
| All Four | Capacity | Capacity and Cultural Competence Programme (3 C’s) | The programme will make connections between all sectors. It will deliver cultural competence initiatives and capacity building. This will include a programme of work for elected members and staff of the council, the Shared City Partnership, and other agencies. Develop a Good Relations charter for all communities working with Council including those that receive funding, and for all elected members to agree and adhere to. It will also enhance the capacity of the Shared City Partnership and develop outcome based criteria for measuring cohesion in the city in collaboration with the Global Peace Index Framework. |
