Welcome to ‘Your Stories of Together: Building a United Community’.
The stories you read and watch here are the lived experiences of different people across the region in 2024.
You will hear the voices of children and young people, refugees and newcomers, people with learning disabilities, local residents, urban and rural, and people from areas of high social deprivation.
You can listen to the perspective of teachers, youth and community workers, peacebuilders, volunteers and public servants.
They share their views on issues such as good relations, education, youth work, sport, peace walls, housing, community integration, marginalisation, mental health, arts and culture.
You will hear hopeful and inspiring stories about progress in building a united community, as well as challenging experiences of different kinds of barriers, sectarianism, racism and hate crime.
The stories highlight what is working in building a more united community and what still needs to be done.
We are grateful to everyone who has shared their story - people of all ages from different religious and ethnic communities, backgrounds, cultures and organisations. Their voices will help to shape a better future.
The Together: Building United a Community (T:BUC) is an Executive Strategy that seeks ‘to create a society where people no longer feel the need to build or live with physical barriers between neighbours, a society where we have a united community and can all live, learn, work and play together, where cultural expression is celebrated and where no one feels marginalised or at risk for who they are’.
Since 2013, through collaborative working between Government Departments, local councils, community organisations, schools, and colleges, the Strategy has reached tens of thousands of people across sections of society, supporting, and developing good relations and making a difference in people’s lives.
Ministers asked officials ‘to conduct a review of T:BUC as part of planning for the next phase of its delivery’ through the Executive Office (TEO) which included a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process, critically evaluating delivery and impact to date, while exploring other key areas such as minority ethnic communities, hate/race hate crime, rural delivery, and wider socio-economic factors such as skills, educational disadvantage, unemployment, mental health and poverty. The review considered funding, outcomes measurement; governance structures; and how to communicate more effectively and consistently with the Good Relations sector and wider public.
While the principles established in the T:BUC Strategy remain constant, our region, our people, our communities, and the needs of all those we serve through our collective work are ever-changing. This change should be reflected through a refreshed approach to the delivery of good relations across the region.
TEO’s plan is to deliver a refreshed and evolved approach to good relations through citizen and community engagement and a co-design process. The process will involve representative stakeholders from the Community and Voluntary sector, Statutory sector and Business sector and will ensure the collective support for and ownership of any new strands in the delivery of good relations.
In preparation for the co-design process, a discovery phase is underway to inform the co-design process. This includes an analysis of good relations principles and theoretical frameworks and their application, and other background material, as well as a specific process to engage with children and young people.
The Review highlights the importance of ensuring any future good relations approach is people-centred and evidence-led. Lived experience of good relations matters for many reasons, not least is that only someone who has been through an experience understands the nuances and complexities. The understanding of such experiences, choices and options relating to good relations and how those factors influence one’s perception and actions are relevant in delivering a co-design process.
This project involved the gathering of evidence through storytelling by facilitating an opportunity for a number of individual/group voices to be heard.
The storytellers are a representative sample across different groups, both urban and rural, including those that have participated in T:BUC programmes over the past 10 years and those that have not.
The stories share each person’s experiences of good relations and their decisions, as well as the knowledge gained from these experiences and choices. They were collected and written by author and peacebuilding consultant, Dr Tony Macaulay between January - March 2024.
This project feeds into the co-design process commencing in Spring 2024.
The stories of young people and youth workers in R-CITY Belfast (Communities Integrating Through Youth) crossing the interfaces
The story of a young newcomer from Yemen to Belfast
The stories of Roma women in Ballymena
The story of the development and impact of shared education in Limavady from principals, teachers and students.
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Listening to all these stories, the key issues I have noticed emerging from these lived experiences are:
Sustained investment in good relations is creating significant change in individuals, institutions and communities.
Long-term T:BUC supported youth programmes, delivered by skilled practitioners, are starting to create a cohort of post-sectarian young people who are normalising the crossing of sectarian divides and interfaces.
Sustained good relations interventions with community groups, young people and arts and culture are contributing to socio-economic benefits such as community regeneration, improved wellbeing, educational attainment and employability.
Young people in interface areas who are moving beyond sectarianism want to see the removal of peace walls which they see as a symbol of the past, a venue for anti-social behaviour and an inconvenience to their mobility.
Young people who have experienced T:BUC programmes want to address other current, relevant issues in their lives, particularly mental health, alongside good relations issues.
The experience of successful local good relations programmes is of interest to other countries where there is also a need to build united communities.
A notable feature of successful good relations initiatives is the energy, drive and commitment of individuals and leaders in schools, public bodies, youth and community organisations .
A growing need in building a united community is to address the challenges of racism, community acceptance and integration of newcomers.
Newcomers are experiencing major challenges in acquiring language skills and accessing housing and health services.
Interdepartmental structures, strategies and commitments are required to support shared housing, education, placemaking and integration, including solutions to transport challenges.
Building united communities requires long-term, sustained, systemic investment.
This people-centred approach via Lived Experience will be continued throughout the co-design process.Following the co-design process, a draft of a refreshed and evolved approach to regional good relations delivery will be shared as part of a public consultation process, providing a further opportunity for engagement.
