Kilcooley Community Forum: New Decade for Development

IMPACT

09 March, 2010

Youth Safety Network / North Down Alternatives

The Youth Safety Network aims to promote the safety and well being of young people, their families and their communities through a process of engagement, participation and service delivery. We aim to deliver practical youth led responses to locally identified need. The project aims to engage with the most hard to reach, disaffected and excluded young people within communities across Northern Ireland.

The Youth Safety Network consortium is made up of Challenge for Youth, ‘The Terry Enright Foundation’ and ‘Northern Ireland Alternatives’.

In the first two years of the five year project it will be piloted in 4 communities two in Belfast – Shankill Road and the New Lodge and two outside of Belfast in the Kilcooley Estate (County Down) and Coalisland (County Tyrone). Local ‘community partners’ will assist in the development of a Youth Safety Partnership for their area.

In Kilcooley the lead community partner is North Down Alternatives, who have formed many positive working relationships with other key stakeholders within the community including many with marginalized young people.

The Youth Safety Partnerships within the local communities will facilitate cooperation, coordination and partnership between young people, the voluntary and community sector and statutory service providers within communities. The aim is to ensure that local needs are addressed, resources are targeted and services quality assured.

These local community partnerships will empower young people to play an active role in the design and delivery of services that relate directly to the safety and well being of children, young people and their wider communities.

The Project will work alongside local partners and key agencies to promote dialogue and partnership between young people, families and the wider community. The creation of these local partnerships will lead to increased cooperation between young people and community voluntary and statutory agencies including Youth Offending Teams, Youth Service, Local Council Community Safety Wardens, Housing Executive, PSNI as well as residents groups and community forums to address issues of community safety, well-being and health. The Youth Safety Partnership will ensure that a strategic framework for the safety and well being of children and young people will emerge from the process and that this will inform practice and re-shape policy.

The Project started in November 2009 and will run for 5 years. For more information on the Project contact Darren Whiteside (Programme Manager YPCSN) at The Terry Enright Foundation 181 Donegal Street Belfast BT1 2 FJ Telephone: 02890 312831

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