What is the Project
We are looking at what the 'peace line' in the area means for us, and how it affects our lives.
Success to Date
We have been making a film with the team from Public Achievement, and we decided to focus on the peace line and the gate which is always shut and stops us from moving around the area and meeting people from other areas.
Also, we recently met the other groups from Springmartin, Ballymurphy and White City. We are looking forward to presenting our project at the Peace Channel launch on 9 November.
Writing about the project, Sean Montgomery said, "The young people who took part in this project challenged themselves in a number of ways, the biggest hurdle for them was to excepted and engage the concept of working with White City young people, for a number of the participants this was their first engagement both mentally and physically in a positive manner with White City.
By engaging in this programme the young people have experienced the process of self inspection of their community, Jolene and David were the front people from the start, but as the process unfolded everyone was fully involved, Brendan though not wanting to be shown on camera took on the role of providing ideas and back ground voice, narrating some of the events. Christy and Paul by the end were debating on camera the existence and contradictions of dividing walls between Whitecity and Whitewell. Donna Marie and Corrinna while not saying much clearly were a full part of the process. Paul came into his own with the physical end working the sound equipment and camera along with Brendan. The ropes course and team building event was to prove very productive,with the nervousness of the young people fading all most from the start. all in all the programme has been sucessful for opening up the young people to challenge their role in comunity."
About the Two Parks Project
The Two Parks Project is an outreach youth project funded by the Big Lottery and managed by the Ashton Community Trust
. The Greencastle project is coordinated by Sean Montgomery covering Bawnmore and Longlands,with a major focus on the Whitewell area. The project is currently working with children and young people from the age of 5 to 25 over four thematic areas of engagement:
- Participation
- Rights based practice
- Physical wellbeing and
- Education.
The project regularly engages in excess of 100 young people on an out-reach and drop-in basis, it centres its work from a small one room drop-in space on the Whitewell end of the Shore Road in Belfast