Angila Chada, Executive Director of Springboard Opportunities tells the story of the organisation’s good relations journey:
In 1992, when we started, there was an awful lot of violence, and massive distrust between communities in Northern Ireland. The IFI set up Wider Horizons and Springboard was funded to deliver initially a three-year initiative, working with 500 young people from both sides of the community. The primary aims were increasing mutual understanding and employability and bringing the two communities together by working together and training together. We had a cross border partner and an international phase.
The level of distrust and fear was quite high at that time and a lot of the young people couldn't tell their friends or family about being on the programme. We couldn't celebrate or promote the initiative because we had to be careful around when young people were going back into their communities. IFI didn’t have a prescriptive approach so we had the space to create our own good relations approach. There was space for our staff to develop practice and over the years we have built on all the learning and the work has evolved. This practice is around supporting change in people and amongst people. The process has key elements with a focus on people driving, designing and delivering and programme. Deciding what's in it, what's not in it, how it's sequenced, and how you build from people coming from different communities and from single identity work, right through to looking at identity and challenging each other in a very safe environment. The process then involves moving on and working together, sharing ideas and different interests to bring people together and form relationships.
Springboard has evolved and former participants have come on to our staff team. About a third of our staff team are former participants and we have a former participant on our board from our very first programme in 1992. This has created an ongoing space for learning to happen within Springboard.
The employability and personal development sides, integrated with good relations practice are absolutely critical to sustainability of change. If young people are sitting without employment, or direction, or lack of confidence, we need to take them through being able to appreciate themselves, appreciate others and then to having a stake in society, which is employability.
In the future we need to focus on how we make good relations sustainable with progression. You can have one level of meeting to break down barriers in a camp, for example, but unless that is followed up by sustainable reinforcement then it won't last. The outcome has to be sustained by follow-up work as change requires longevity. If you want to promote and support change, there has to be a tail to this. The work we're doing right now is six months long, three to four days a week, ten to four, working with groups of young people coming from different traditions.
You're trying to change a lifetime of experience that's embedded and reinforced in communities day and daily. Set against that, supporting change that young people own and take forward has to have some level of longevity.’
Steph O'Rourke, Deputy Director of Springboard shares her story:
‘I'm originally from Southern Ireland, Kells in County Meath. In 2007, at 20 years of age, I came here as a young person on a Springboard programme. Springboard was running the Wider Horizons cross-community, cross-border programme and I was one of the Southerners who came up here with absolutely no idea about what was happening in Northern Ireland. I had no idea what I was about to let myself in for! I met so many people from different backgrounds and went to South Africa as part of a placement. When I came back, I gained a role as a young youth mentor and then applied for university. I’ve literally done every role at this stage from mentor to project leader to team leader to management and now Deputy Director. I've been with the organisation for 16 or 17 years.
I’ve seen so much, from the experience of walking through the door as a nervous young person and not knowing what to expect when it came to good relations, cross-community and peacebuilding work, to seeing the organisation evolve and adapt as young people and their needs changed over the years. We've grown, learned and developed as practitioners to get to this stage.
In 2013, the organisation changed and ran United Youth and then Fusion Plus, Executive Office programmes, Peace 4 and now
Peace Plus. It helped us grow, adapt and learn, but through those funding and programme changes the organisation has stayed true to its values. Good relations work needs a very skilled staff team that is comfortable and confident in having those difficult conversations. I would say we pride ourselves on sustained contact. Young people are together three to four days a week because it’s important to make sure that good relations work lasts.
Young people from working class backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the Troubles and are most highly impacted by leaving school and low educational attainment. So, employability, upskilling and widening participation of young people from those communities into university and Tech is so important.
I think so many of the young people we support don't even realize it's an option for them because they left school without any qualifications. We have a massive brain drain here. So, for socioeconomic reasons, it would be good to upskill the young people that stay here and remove barriers for young people from these communities. We offer travel cards and lunches as part of all our programmes to make them more accessible. If there's an opportunity for childcare or to pay for provision for newcomer communities that would remove barriers to participation too.
In the future we need skilled practitioners, more sustained contact, to include more space for newcomer communities, and to promote best practice in what works well in bringing young people together for sustained periods of time doing purposeful work.’
Connor Hamilton, Team Leader with Springboard shares his story:
‘In 2007, I came to Springboard on the same programme as Steph and it was definitely eye-opening. The cross-border element made us think about some of the things we do and why we do them. I am from the New Lodge and coming from a Catholic, nationalist background it was a completely new exposure for me. From then I became a youth mentor and peer mentor on the programmes. Then I moved into the project leader role and then into the role of team leader. Every phase and every step exposed me to something new, whether a challenge for young people or a new understanding of what's going on as things changed over those 15 years.
We talk about the elephant in the room. We give young people an understanding of who they are as people and give them opportunities to understand who else is in the room.
Also, who's outside of the room that we need to bring in to have a conversation, so they have a deeper level of understanding. It’s about sustainability, so if you're understanding yourself, your values and beliefs, and you're breaking down your stereotypes and prejudices, how do you bring that back into your community? It’s not just what's happening in Springboard programmes but trying to create longevity when you go back home. When you bring your learning back to the community that is how it’s sustained.
The staff have been through the process themselves which gives us an understanding which then feeds down to the young people. If you care and you're passionate and value it, that feeds into your group and the young people know you care.’
John McKinnon shares his story:
‘I'm 21 years old, and I come from the Shankill. Growing up, I loved it there and the strong sense of community. After being attacked I learned that it wasn't safe to go into places like Ardoyne, because of where I come from, and it was a shame. I was brought up not to bring people over from the opposite side, in case I got hurt and they got hurt.
In 2018, I first went to Springboard and mixed with Catholics. At first I just sat there for a laugh and forty quid a week but then two of the youth workers told me they saw something in me and in the last five weeks I really engaged. But it wasn't enough and I went back to my old ways, down a very negative path of drink, drugs and violence. In 2020, I was approached again by Springboard for a two-year personal development group and I thought this was the chance to turn my life around. It’s given me so many opportunities. I became a mental health ambassador and having suffered from mental health and lost a lot of friends to suicide I knew becoming an advocate to other young people would be very impactful. Now I’ve secured a job on a Springboard good relations programme between Shankill and Clonard and I love it.
Springboard has done a lot for me. Their core values and beliefs are in people. It’s not just about the numbers. They're pushing me to go to university. They want the best for me.
I just owe so much to Springboard. They’ve completely changed my life and I know for a fact they have changed so many other peoples’ lives too.
I think Springboard is the main example of what we need for the future of Northern Ireland because they have such a strong impact on young people.’