Executive Committee Asks to Hear from Ballycastle Students

At the start of April, students from Cross and Passion and Ballycastle High Schools, visited Stormont to present their report on violence against women and girls and tackling what they see as an increase in toxic masculinity. The students met MLAs Timothy Gaston, Sian Mulholland and Philip McGuigan and presented their hard-hitting report.

The project was part of our 'Citizens Now' campaign which has seen 35 schools work in local cross-community clusters on a wide range of issues. These themes were also covered at a large scale 'Local to Global' event held at Queen's University in March. Mr Gaston kindly told the Executive Committee of which he is a member about the impact that the young people's report had had on him.

At a time of increasing disillusionment with politics among young people here, this is an encouraging development. Young people can see how their views and their work together are impacting at the heart of government.

The students are calling for reform to the curriculum. As one of the students Eimear said, "We would love to see major reforms in education when it comes to violence against women and girls". Their impressive report is attached.

The Citizens Now project has been supported by the Reconciliation Fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Ireland Funds, with other support from Radiius Housing, Belfast City Council, the Education Authority and the Ram Foundation.