The New Normal

In September 2021 we received a 3-year grant from the National Lottery Community Fund's 'Empowering Young People' programme to support our work across Northern Ireland. This has allowed us to work with over 35 schools and 500 young people in local cross-community clusters of schools.  Over a 5 session programme the young people met, built relationships, agrede on issues they care about and then developed a project or presentation on that issue which they take to the Northern Ireland Assembly to present to politicians. Some groups also visited the Irish Daíl.

In the process they discussed and researched the issues that are important to them and learnt how to present them - growing in their understanding and self-confidence. Young people told us they enjoyed being able to discuss issues they might not get to discuss normally in school - and they like having a safe space to discuss even difficult and controversial issues and learning from the perspectives and experiences of others.

Our skilled team of facilitators helped to deliver these programmes and to bring in guest speakers. They have extensive political knowledge and expertise and are a great resource and support for the groups.

Increasingly we worked to find new ways of supporting the longer term involvement of young people in addressing issues that are important to them. We have also worked closely with partners, including; Start 360, Diverse Youth NI, the Secondary Students Union and others to increase the impact of our work.

This project and funding  really helped us to grow our organisation and model over the past 3 years, and there have been several spin-off projects including our 'Young Evaluators' project, our 'Votes at 16' campaign and the 'Better Peace Podcast' series.

One particular highlight of the project was when we were invited to be part of the events to commemorate 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement at Queen's University Belfast. Over 250 were able to meet some of the key architects of the peace agreement (including Sir Tony and Sheree Blair, Bertie Ahern and Jack Kennedy III) and to engage with expert panels of politicians and women in local and global leadership roles.

Read Professor Tony Gallagher's comprehensive report on the project to see the impact this project has made on young people, their schools and our wider society.