Blanaid Bruce, The Good Relations Officer for Earls Court in Dungannon, tells a story of shared housing:
‘I work with Radius Housing and I was responsible for putting the residents group together in Earls Court. As part of the Programme for Government, we're trying to promote shared housing across Northern Ireland, to bring communities together. Earls Court has been a really successful community to come together, so far. We've been running the residents group for about a year now and there have been lots of successes.’
Brenda McArdle is co-chairperson of the residents group. She explains:
‘We've lived in Earls Court here for six years now. Blanaid has brought us all together on many occasions. Most recently, Santa came to Earls Court in a massive sleigh and all the kids were out and we had a party with lots of sweets and Santa stayed and gave out selection boxes. The kids all loved it.’
Blanaid adds:
‘Because the kids come out, the adults come out and then start talking to each other, and then friendships are made.’
Brenda says:
‘We've made good friends. I go to Phil's often for tools and some DIY advice!’
Phillip Mullan, a resident of Earls Court says:
‘We've been living here for about five and a half years. It’s a nice community to be in. Compared to other places where I've lived, it’s got a wider range of neighbours. It's nice to be able to drive down the road and recognise people and know their names. The different events have been good for the children and there are lots of children in Earls Court.’
Brenda continues:
‘The kids all play together frequently and in the summer all the kids play in the street and it’s really good.’
Blanaid explains:
‘Before we started this Earls Court Residents Association, the members living here had never met each other.’
Brenda says:
‘We didn't know each other, so that's nice. Now we've been on nights out and we have also planned on doing other things together.’
Blanaid says:
‘In Earls Court there's such a broad range of cultures, and the kids learn from each other's cultures. They’re not seeing the differences and we run events to try and celebrate all of the cultures within Earls Court. We get everybody joining in.
We would celebrate Traveller Awareness Week, different days around Polish culture, East Timorese etc. We're trying to make everybody feel included.’
Brenda says:
‘When we did the flower boxes for everyone in the estate, people that wouldn't necessarily open the door, spoke to us and it made them more aware.
It’s a way of reaching out and letting everyone know what we're doing, making the place more of a community.’
Phil adds:
‘When you're living in the community, it's very easy just to live in your house and not have time to actually speak to other people. It's very easy not to have time, because we all have our own families and lives. So it's good to have those opportunities where people are all stepping out of their house and there’s time to get to know people. It makes you feel safer in your own community, when you know who people are and you can approach people if you’ve met them.
I think having shared spaces and opportunities for people to talk to each other is good to help you realise everyone's really the same. They may have different ideas but we're all humans and we all have the same problems.’
A group of children from Earls Court tell the story from their perspective:
‘People came over to our estate and painted the park with all different vibrant colours and made it look better than it used to.’
‘Last Easter we had a little parade. We walked up the great big hill and all the way down.’
‘We had a Halloween party and a Christmas party.’
‘We rode on Santa's sleigh and we had a disco.’
‘Everybody is really kind and sweet.’
‘We can make friends from around the world that are not our skin colour.’
‘We can all be equal even if we can’t be the same in one different way.’