Youth Workers Building Relationships Across the Interface
The story of the impact of sustained youth work across the Falls/Shankill interface
Stephen Hughes, Senior Youth Worker at St. Peter’s Immaculata YC in Divis, and Ruth Pettigrew, Centre Director at Townsend Outreach Centre in the Lower Shankill share stories of building relationships across the interface.
Stephen says,
‘I first came to St. Peter's in 2014 and there was no good relations work. There was no understanding of what the walls actually are, how they impact communities and how they change the lives of our children and young people. We had no relationship in Divis with the people on the other side of the wall, which was quite sad. And that's when Ruth and I got together and we decided that we were going to change the lived experiences of our children and young people. That's when we started the Ambassadors Programme.
It was initially just about dispelling some of the myths and assumptions and exposing our young people to the people on the other side of the wall who had heard so many stories and so many myths.’
Ruth explains,
‘I think the success was because at the very start we decided that we would look at questions in common. So we started, in the very first sessions, to look at the peace walls and what would it be like if the peace walls disappeared. It was a very open-ended question, and there was lots of discussion, lots of activities and getting to know each other. So, the question was ‘if there was no peace wall, what difference would that make to my life?’
Stephen continues,
‘We weren't going to put in a lot of barriers. In this programme we were going to be young person led. So they could turn up in their band uniforms or their Celtic and Rangers tops and they did. The work was on understanding each other's traditions. We came from the perspective that it is one society divided and we helped and supported young people to understand what that segregation looks like and how it breeds fear into our communities.
It's been a huge success. Some of the stories are super. We've had young people from the programme who are now married across the community. We have people who are in relationships that are cross community. We have kids who now walk from Divis to the Lower Shankill, and kids from the Lower Shankill who walk over to Divis, which would never have happened in the past.’
Ruth says,
‘The relationships that have been built have come through naturally, not forced. I think that's because we allowed exploration. We said, ‘don't look at the difference, let's look at what we've got in common’.’
Stephen shares a recent story,
‘I think the best outcome is that we now have genuine friendships. On New Year's Eve, we were out doing outreach in Dunville Park (Falls Rd). We always have a team out at those times of the year and when we walked into Dunville the kids were all sitting around the fountain with their carry-outs, listening to music and entertaining themselves. As we were scanning we suddenly got to five kids who were from the Shankill, sitting in Dunville Park having a hooley. Then you get the same in return, where our kids are now going over to the Shankill and partying with their friends.
We find this an achievement because we are segregated and because it is such a sectarian society, and I think we've a lot of stories like this out there. And it's not just our programmes. There are a number of programmes across the city that are doing absolutely superb work.’
Ruth and Stephen share what the young people are saying today,
‘The kids are saying ‘We want something different. This is our society now. Your age group, you just keep things going. We want something different.’
We're beginning to hear from our children and young people, ‘We want the walls down. We want a normal society. It's the older people's problem and we want it changed. We want a change for our next generation. We don't want this society the way it was. We don't want it to be all this suspicion and fear. We want it to be different. We want to move forward.’
Stephen says,
‘Current politics has segregated our communities further. Now that the Assembly is back in operation, I think there has to be a drive to bring communities that are segregated by the walls together and not just our children and young people, our parents and adults as well. These communities have to be a priority. The economic and social barriers need to be tackled and I think there's got to be some sort of initiative developed that's going to effect change in these communities, that we can all buy into, instead of small pockets of work. A strategy around this would be really, really helpful.
We've also got to tackle violence and the romanticism of violence. The radicalisation that romanticism brings has to be challenged. We have to teach ourselves that violence was never good. We hurt each other. We damaged and murdered and killed each other and to think that we continue to celebrate that as ‘usuns and themuns’ is an awful perspective. We're now seeing that manifest itself in other ways. We're seeing domestic violence numbers increase. We're seeing interface violence increasing again, and we're seeing criminal gangs that are dressed up as political, radicalising, exploiting and coercing our young people, but also abusing them by beating them or shooting them. There are a lot of challenges ahead.’
Ruth continues,
‘Let's provide opportunities for young people to look at gang cultures. Let's not be afraid to address them, and how many cultures are actually within my own community?
The reality is there are a lot of serious issues. Stop skirting around them. Deal with the issues. The young people deserve a better future and the only way we can do that is to grasp the nettle and deal with the real issues. Our politicians need to get out there on the streets and listen to the young people.’
Stephen says,
‘We need to prioritise communities that have suffered the most and where this radicalisation and romanticism is bred. We need to educate our children and young people. There are issues with budget and there are practical issues but the biggest issue for me is in terms of policy. I think we need to be focussed and targeted and we need to change the outcomes. We need to grasp the nettle and tackle the contentious issues. We need to tackle the attitudes and the behaviours. We need to help our young people build their pluralism, their interdependency and their acceptance and understanding of diversity. Not to fear it, because they don't fear it when you put them in those environments. They actually enjoy it! We need to keep changing. We need to keep focusing. We need to keep working with our young people.’
