Claudy named for major new initiative

The Shared Neighbourhood Programme, funded by the International Fund for Ireland and the Department for Social Development, is designed to support and encourage shared neighbourhoods across Northern Ireland.

Managed by the Housing Executive the initial project has already achieved 30 shared neighbourhoods over a three year period.Participation in the Shared Neighbourhood Programme will provide access to grants to celebrate diversity and bring together people, from all backgrounds, who live in these areas. Participants also benefit from community relations training, community consultations and support to design their own Neighbourhood Charter and deliver their own Good Relations Programme. Practical on the ground support is also provided by the Housing Executive through a dedicated team of Cohesion Advisers. The fourteen areas, which include Mount Vernon in Belfast and Castledawson in County Londonderry, were announced last week at a special event in Belfast which also highlighted the findings of an independent evaluation of the first phase of the programme. The external evaluation found that the Shared Neighbourhood Programme is just one of the many possible responses to the issue of segregated housing but it is perhaps the response with the most potential to make the most difference. The evaluation also praised the Programme's community led nature and its success in driving forward partnerships between social housing estates, within those estates and between communities and statutory agencies. The success of the Programme's community development approach to community relations was felt to provide immense benefits promoting self-sufficiency and a movement away from a dependence on grant income. More importantly, the Shared Neighbourhood Programme was credited as providing a practical means for communities to move from just co-existence towards real integration. Speaking at the event, Denis Rooney CBE, Chairman of the International Fund for Ireland asked Government to learn from the experiences of the Shared Neighbourhood Programme.

He said: "Today we are marking the very significant achievement of our initial goal of 30 shared neighbourhoods in three years, but we are also mindful that much work still needs to be done in order to help communities here to learn, work and live together as part of a shared and integrated future."

He continued: "Over 870,000 has been committed to the Shared Neighbourhood Programme by the International Fund for Ireland and the Programme is the result of our willingness to take risks for peace through our approach to being 'first money on the table' and investing in new initiatives for dealing with sectarianism. However, it is those who take the everyday risk of reaching out across the community who have made the Shared Neighbourhood Programme such a success."