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Hanwood Trust, Belfast
Tullycarnet in east Belfast is one of Northern Ireland’s most deprived and disadvantaged areas, low levels of education and high levels of unemployment.
However, the Hanwood Trust is committed to creating fresh opportunities and new thinking in Tullycarnet. A charitable organisation, the Trust brings together representatives from the local community, statutory agencies, the private sector and elected members of Castlereagh Borough Council, with the aim of developing infrastructural initiatives that will have long-term benefits for the community.
The Trust’s major initiative to date has been the construction of the Community Economic Resource Training Centre, which has been developed to promote an enterprise culture in the area, providing access to the labour market for local unemployed people through improved training opportunities, as well as creating 4 jobs directly. The Centre currently provides training facilities for local community initiatives, as well as access to PCs for the local community.
The Trust is currently developing phase two of the Centre. When completed, this will have 25 enterprise units, a petrol filling station, a mini-supermarket, and retail units. It will also provide much-needed sporting facilities for the area through the provision of an all-weather football pitch with floodlights and a communiy gymnasium. The enterprise units are expected to be completed by 2008 with the other elements of the projects to follow.
According to Clare Jamison, Economic Development Manager, Hanwood Trust, the additional benefit to the community from the Centre will be that any money raised from the use of the Centre after running costs are deducted will be put back into the area through the provision of subsidised training initiatives, grants and courses.
The total investment in the project to date is over £3 million with the Fund providing £950,000. The Hanwood Trust has also secured support from the Department of Trade & Investment for Northern Ireland, Castlereagh Borough Council and the private sector.
“Without the International Fund’s tremendous backing this project would not have gone ahead. The core of the funding is coming from the International Fund and this has driven the project on,” said Clare Jamison.
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Farset International, Belfast
Farset Youth and Community Development Limited is based on the Springfield Road in West Belfast, adjacent to the sectarian interfaces of Clonard/Shankhill and Highfield/Ballymurphy.
It was established in 1982 and its primary aim is to tackle the problems of chronic unemployment and social deprivation in West Belfast through the active involvement of a wide range of contacts and working relationships within Northern Ireland and further afield.
Several years ago, Farset recognised that while its activities attracted a significant number of groups and individuals to Belfast, there was a shortage of quality, low cost accommodation for visitors to the area. In response to this, in 2002 Farset developed the Springvale hostel in West Belfast comprising 38 twin bed en suite rooms, conference centre, snack bar and licensed restaurant.
The hostel has proved very popular with tourists and visitors to West Belfast and has a high occupancy rate. It employs 27 people.
The hostel also provides an environment for training and education purposes and is aimed at meeting the needs of individuals and groups spending time in Belfast on projects concerned with community, economic and social development.
According to Jackie Hewitt, Director, Farset Youth and Community Development Limited, the Fund’s support for the project was crucial in it getting off the ground. “The funding from the Fund was the first on the table and while some people may have been sceptical about putting a tourist hostel in an interface area, the Fund’s backing for the hostel meant that other organisations also came on board.”
The total cost of the development was £2.27m with the Fund providing £xm and the balance coming from the Belfast European Partnership Board, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, the Department for Social Development, Belfast City Council, Invest NI and the Belfast Local Strategy Partnership.
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Stewartstown Road Regeneration Project, Belfast
For the last thirty five years, Belfast has been divided by ’interfaces ’ – physical and psychological dividing lines between Unionist and Nationalist areas in the city. A recent survey by the Belfast Interface Project has shown that there are 41 government authorised interface structures – walls, fences, gates, etc – in Belfast alone.
The Stewartstown Road in outer West Belfast marks one of these interfaces between Protestant/Unionist Suffolk and the surrounding Catholic/Nationalist areas including Lenadoon. For years, the area has suffered spasmodic outbreaks of violence and establishing relationships between the local communities has been a struggle. In addition, the Protestant Suffolk estate has suffered from low housing demand, migration, and vacant properties that have impacted negatively on the whole area’s economy and physical appearance.
In 1998, the inter-community Stewartstown Road Regeneration Committee was established to regenerate the area and at the same time to introduce a sustainable community business within a shared space. The scheme adopted was a £1.5 million / €2,190,000 mixed-use redevelopment project that - following demolition of all the derelict properties - has involved the construction of a new combined commercial/community resource and the provision of temporary crèche and playschool facilities.
The second phase of this development began construction in February 2007 and will see a permanent 50 place children’s day centre built along with further shops and offices. It is envisaged that around 40 jobs will be created from this expansion.
In addition to securing new jobs for the area, there has been a reduction in the number of sectarian incidents along the interface recorded by the Police Service for Northern Ireland since the Committee began its work.
According to John Hoey, Manager, Stewartstown Road Regeneration Project, the Fund’s support has been crucial to the project’s success: “Funding from the International Fund has been invaluable, particularly in the first phase, because it was a clear indication to other potential funders that this was a project worth backing.”
In total, the International Fund has provided £1m / €1,460,000 for the Stewartstown Road Regeneration Project’s work. The Project has secured additional funding from Belfast European Partnership Board, Belfast Local Strategy Partnership, Department for Social Development, and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
For more information on the Stewartstown Road Regeneration Project visit www.stewartstownroad.org
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