Member of the Shared Neighbourhood football team, Lissize, County Down.
A small estate of 100 houses in Rathfriland in County Down, Lissize has become the first participant in the Shared Neighbourhood Programme to be officially designated as a Shared Neighbourhood. Lissize Community Association has been working in the local area for over 12 years and was one of the first housing estates to commit to the Shared Neighbourhood Programme.
Maxi Beale, Chairman of the Association explains the journey: “Lissize has a good mix of people and the estate has been shared for over 30 years but we need to keep working at it to make sure it stays that way. Our Association initially came together to tackle housing issues in the area but we’ve moved beyond that to improving life more broadly for everyone in the area.“The Association includes local residents as well as representatives from a range of statutory agencies. Five years ago we set up a project team to develop an action plan for the area and we meet at least once a month to look at current issues. It’s a great team of people and everyone works hard.”
Over the last five years, the Association has completed a number of projects including an entrance feature, a play park and a football pitch. Since becoming involved in the Shared Neighbourhood Programme, the Association has founded a cross-community youth football team – who play in a shared neighbourhood branded strip and developed a new Good Relations Plan and Neighbourhood Charter for the area.
The Plan and the Charter are part of the Community Association’s ongoing commitment to promoting Lissize as a shared neighbourhood and to ensuring that equality of opportunity, mutual respect and understanding for diversity become part of daily life. Both also focus on the community’s commitment to better cross-community relations between residents through a range of initiatives and to maintaining excellent working relationships with statutory agencies.
Maxi feels that becoming involved in the Shared Neighbourhood Programme has made a real impact on the local area: “There is no doubt that the Programme has helped us. We’ve made our greatest progress since we became involved. We’re just one small estate but we’re very proud to be showing the way to others.”
