Mid Ulster District Council PIV Action Plan - BPR

The Mid Ulster Peace IV Programme Results: Increased number of young people who have an understanding of their own identity and respect for others of difference. Increased number of young people who have greater respect for diversity. Increased number of young people who have greater confidence and emotional skills to participate in active citizenship and community based activity. Increased understanding and respect for diversity, history and heritage. Increased community engagement in shared initiatives and spaces. Increased perception of civic spaces as shared and for use by all. Increased cross community engagement between communities. Engagement of communities who have not engaged in Peace and good relations. Increased cross border relationships and engagement between communities. Greater capacity of marginalised groups to participate in peace and community activity (isolated & low capacity communities, women, people with a disability, ethnic minority/BME, faith community, groups impacted by the legacy of the troubles). Mid Ulster District Council’s Peace IV programme is focused upon; Facilitating cross community engagement between children and young people to enhance good relations, cross community engagement, greater respect and understanding of diversity, personal development and citizenship; Developing shared space initiatives that will enable greater interaction between all members of local communities and open up our civic infrastructure to all; Building positive relations between different communities, with socially excluded target groups and between cross border communities. Delivery will be via a mix of programmes and small projects and will achieve the following outputs; 1050 young people engaged in programmes that develop a greater understanding of respect for diversity, enhance their personal development and promote active citizenship; and youth leadership. The project will create 9 local shared initiatives across Mid Ulster that are used by all sections of the community. An action plan that will result in meaningful, purposeful and sustained contact between persons from different communities. Children and Young People. Addressing the need of children and young people who are disengaged, participating in ASB, are making uninformed judgements about others who are different from themselves, and schools and young people who would like and require the opportunity to engage with young people from other communities. The Programme will involve the delivery of 4 strategic programmes for children and young people; including through school engagement and some local grant led support that will develop: Greater respect for diversity; Better understanding of difference; Opportunity to meet people from different communities; Enhanced personal development; Greater positive relations with young people from different communities; Greater knowledge about the culture of other and ethnic communities. The programmes will seek to expand on what is good practice and target school/areas/groups of young people currently not participating; and also the development of tailored programmes to target need. Shared Space Initiatives: Addressing the issue of areas with public assets that are not used by all due to perception or emblems, and to provide greater opportunities for people to come together utilising and developing shared infrastructure and initiatives. The Programme will allow for maximisation of shared space initiatives across the District. Allowing greater accessibility of shared public open space assets for the wider community. The 9 projects will be delivered through proactive engagement with local people and communities and seek to present our towns and villages as open to all. Building Positive Relations: Addressing the need to tackle racist and sectarian incidents and how uninformed attitude and judgement are defining activity, lack of opportunity to engage with people outside of their own community areas. There is a lack of capacity to engage and focus is on providing supported opportunity for people to engage in cross border activity and in cross community activity. It will also seek to address issues of contention in specific areas across the district including parades, flags, attitude to minority language and bonfires. The Programme will provide for a strategic approach to realising peace and reconciliation benefits/results for Mid Ulster. It will include the delivery of a number of strategic programmes alongside a focused grant programme. Decade of Commemoration programme: Addressing the Legacy of the Conflict Leadership Programme; Arts and Events Programme; Targeted communities programme; Cross border programme; Grants Programme. The Plan will proactively support cross border development as Mid Ulster borders with Monaghan County Council area and there is a tradition of cross border working through a range of activities under the Blackwater Regional Partnership and ICBAN. There also have been linkages through cultural and heritage programmes with Donegal and Cavan. Further cross border development is central to the plan. The programme will provide for complementarity to other programmes including Council’s Good Relations unit and the Vibrant & Safe Communities thematic work under the new Community Planning process which will provide for longer sustainability and integration with other activity/programmes. The Plan takes account of sustainable development and equality throughout and ensures they are provided for. The Plan will be delivered under a Partnership of 22; including Council members, statutory agencies and the community ad voluntary sector. The Partnership and delivery of plan will be led by Mid Ulster District Council under its governance processes.