Reconciling communities through regeneration

For the residents of North Belfast the ‘peace line’ that runs through Alexandra Park has been a constant feature of their daily lives.

Frequent violence between the communities of Nationalist Newington and Loyalist Lower North Belfast made the park so dangerous that in 1994 a peace wall was erected, making it the only public park in Western Europe to be divided in two to prevent sectarian rioting.

However, September 2011 saw a significant move towards lasting peace in North Belfast when a peace gate was opened in the wall.

Groundwork NI, as part of a regional PEACE III funded programme – Reconciling Communities Through Regeneration – began a process of engagement in 2009 with a view to improving cross-community relations through dialogue and helping with the environmental regeneration of an area where Nationalist and Loyalist districts meet.

Central to this work was the establishment of the cross-community Alexandra Park Steering Group. Over the past 30 months its members have worked to promote wider use of the park and its physical regeneration, building relationships between various groups.

Children cross the peace line at Alexandra Park in Belfast.

The members are Greater Newington Residents’ Association, North Belfast Community Development and Transition Group, Tigers Bay Concerned Residents, Intercomm, Friends of the Grove, Castleton Residents’ Association, Belfast City Council, Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Department of Justice, all of whom are represented on the Steering Group.

The steering group agreed after consulting all key stakeholders that the Alexandra Park peace gate should operate on a three-month trial basis. This has now been extended based on the positive response from both sides of the community.

Groundwork NI has been working closely with the steering group over the past two years and with local residents and groups from both sides of the communities surrounding Alexandra Park to move the regeneration plans forward. The steering group is leading the way towards bringing both communities together through a recreational space and we would hope this will have a direct and positive impact on the daily lives of people who live near the park.

Although Northern Ireland is in many ways a unique case, the idea of bringing communities together through regeneration has much wider application.

Groundwork aims to deliver change in the communities that need it most. Following last summer’s riots in English cities, Groundwork is working to build community cohesion and in particular with young people who are or are at risk of becoming disconnected from mainstream society.

The Young People Friendly Neighbourhoods project is working on housing estates across Britain to help young people shape the services that affect them. And in south London, the Our Voice project is working with local youngsters aged 12-19 to encourage them to use their musical talents to promote positive messages about themselves and their area.

Nationally, the numbers are impressive. In 2010/11, we organised 551,100, days of community involvement by adults and worked with 1,920 private, public and voluntary sector partners to bring about positive changes in communities. Some 79% of people we worked with felt their neighbourhood had improved since the involvement of Groundwork.

It’s a core principle of what Groundwork is all about and the need for our work is as great now as when we started 30 years ago.