Making a real difference

BY ÁINE Ní BHRIAIN

Gerry Adams at the launch of the Colin Safer Neighbourhoods Project

It has been two years since the Colin Safer Neighbourhood Project was initiated in West Belfast, but in that short period of time the impact the programme has had on the local community has been phenomenal. The project has even become a template for other communities and is now expanding throughout Belfast.

An Phoblacht talks to some of the people behind the initiative about its success, its expansion and the ongoing issues local residents have been tackling.

"I think our success speaks for itself," says the Vice-Chair of the Colin Safer Neighbourhood Project, George Rogan. "We have in the neighbourhood of 140-150 local residents out every weekend and that number is still building.

"The reduction in death driving has been phenomenal. We've put safety measures in place — speed bumps, crash bars and the like — and set up residents' groups. This stretch of road used to have four or five cars burnt on a weekend; now there's not one.

"On another past occasion there were seven cars in one street burnt in a row. The following weekend we held a public meeting. Residents came out and set up their community watch and the week after that people were actually saying it was so quiet that they couldn't sleep. We didn't have an answer for that one!"

"We believe our work is improving the image of the Colin area and we've gotten results. When people used to think of Poleglass they thought of joyriders, stabbings and so, on but now it's a completely different sort of feeling. People have told us they have really noticed the change.

"As far as young people are concerned, we don't just interact with them on the streets — we're working with them through a variety of different projects — Everything from discos to a young girls' group, the fishing club... We try to find something for everyone.

"We are already dealing with about 300-400 children and youths every week and it's still growing. But in spite of our success we still have many difficulties to overcome, not least of which is a lack of funding, resources and facilities, and a lack of support from some statutory bodies.

"I mean, we're now sitting in what is probably the main facility in the Poleglass area — Sally Gardens Community Centre — and that's been our experience. And what we've found is that the more projects we get up and running... well, there's nowhere to actually put them. Sally Gardens has been very, very helpful to us, but basically this is it. This is all this community has.

"We have a population of 30,000 people," points out Domick Hyland. "75% of those are under the age of 18. But we haven't even got a park. Not one park in this entire area. How can that be justified? Although we have a population the size of Ballymena, we don't have a fraction of the resources they have.

"And we should be getting support from statutory bodies like Lisburn City Council, but they have been of little help. In fact, our experience with them has always been problematic. No matter what you go to them for, there's always an excuse or a hurdle to jump. No matter what you present them with, there's another obstacle to put in your way."

"We have a massive population of children. What other reason do you need to have a park? Other areas have that built in as part of the community infrastructure but we've got nothing. Lisburn city a city for all? I think it's a joke. Let's be quite honest about it — we have nothing up here for our young people or our children and that has a massive impact on anti-social behaviour. If there's nothing else for them to do then naturally they're going to get up to mischief.

"The Lagmore area doesn't even have a shop. They have absolutely nothing, zero. People just sort of give up on it. Any money that we make is self-funded — through ballots or whatever. It's all been community based. It's had to be.

"For example, we were allocated £10,000 in funding last year by Lisburn Peace and Reconciliation. But, to date, we have received only £1,000 of that. And we need to have that spent as of the first of May or we've lost that money. Even though it's been allocated to us, it has not been handed over. Every bit of paperwork they ask for we've given to them, but then they just ask for something else. We've even had to cancel kids' projects because the money is just not there.

"Our fear is that at some point we're going to have to cap what we're doing because we are so stretched and we would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the public to come forward if they want to give us a hand.

"In Scotland they have safer neighbourhood projects and those groups are getting in excess of £250,000 of funding to support the work they do. They also get all sorts of training. In the 26 Counties, community projects like this are actually trained by the Gardaí — they're even issued radios that provide them with a direct link.

"But here... we have watched this area almost dwindle away due to a lack of policing, and that is basically why we came about in the first place. Nobody within our community has any faith in the PSNI or the RUC, so we had to take it upon ourselves. We decided that if we wanted to clean up the area we would have to be the ones to do it. We can't rely on the PSNI.

"There's a million issues out there. Our phone never stops. From last April to now we have dealt with 1,200 incidents that we have either come across or have been reported to us, and they have all been dealt with and resolved to everyone's satisfaction. But when the PSNI recently released their statistics for the area, they hadn't even recorded a quarter of that.

"Gerry Murray himself, who is the PSNI district commander, made a statement to the Sunday People that our project is working and we have better statistics than them. His exact words were that we were more effective because we were constantly on the ground. It's actually proving the point that people have more faith in us than they do in the PSNI."

"In all honesty, we do not see a change from the RUC to the PSNI," agrees Steven McGuinness, the project chairperson. "None whatsoever. For example, along this road we have "no drinking" signs, but the PSNI will drive up and down, right past underage drinkers. On a regular basis we've seen them sit idly by as stolen cars pass them, and again they take no action.

"We've watched them arrest so-called joyriders who are then back on the streets within an hour. We've even watched crowds beating the life out of each other as they sit there and do nothing about it. Instead of the real work of policing, they continue to pursue their old political agenda.

"We still have a real issue up here with "£10 touts". Kids have approached us and told us that when they were taken in by the PSNI they were given the names of other members of the community to "watch out for" and had been put under enormous pressure to inform. And one of the first things that struck me about that is, how can they put a kid under that kind of pressure, especially with the suicide rate at the minute?

"Many of the young people who approach us have actually come to us in tears, thinking they're going to be beaten or even killed. They are being told the old stories about "touts on the border" and it's doing their heads in. Kids will come to us drunk, crying their eyes out and say 'help me'. It would break your heart at times. And it's happening regularly.

"But there have been big changes. We are building strong relationships with our young people. Some used to run at the sight of us. I mean, a year ago if we had gone down to them they'd have shouted all sorts of abuse. Now it's all banter and jokes. We have worked hard to break down barriers. We see young lads who used to be in trouble a few years back - now they have their own flats, kids of their own, they're talking about marriage and all that. It's been very rewarding for everyone.

"And although many young people have come to us, there's also a lot of kids who haven't, and we would like to take this opportunity to tell them that we're approachable. Come to us and we will help you. We'll get it resolved."

"Our local councillors — Paul Butler, Veronica Willis, Sue Ramsey and Michael Ferguson - have been amazing," says Chris Irving, project secretary. "The work that they do on the ground is phenomenal. It's absolutely tireless — morning, noon, and night these people are out alongside us, and they are behind us 100%. Without them we probably couldn't have done half the things we have done.

"The clergy have been brilliant as well. Fr Martin in particular, who continues to work tirelessly with us even though he is not in this area. There's also Fr Eugene, Fr McGirr and Fr Murray.

"Monsignor Toner has also now come on board with the Lower Falls. Just a few weeks ago he made a comment to the Irish News after an episode on Albert Street. His exact words were that every area, especially the Lower Falls, needed a safer neighbourhood project.

"The whole experience has been a real learning curve for us. As we've gone along issues come up and we deal with them. Twenty-five of our project members have already taken courses in child protection and more are waiting to begin. We are making it a requirement.

"Last year, more than 20 people in this area took their own lives, so we are also looking into training in suicide prevention and education. If something is a major concern in this area, it's a concern to us. No matter what issue comes up we will go and get the training we need to do the job.

"The next big issue we plan to tackle is the off licences. We know of cases where people have been going into an off-sales five or six times a night, cases where people have been buying in bulk. There are young people working behind the counter who don't want to knock back their friends or are afraid of reprisals if they refuse local bullies. There are adults charging kids a "service fee" for each bag they provide. Some of them make £60-£70 a night.

"In one recent incident we actually saw an adult lining up blue bags on the footpath and all the kids queuing. As soon as we got that stopped, they started to go out to Dunmurry to get alcohol.

"The majority of parents actively support us, but we do get the odd one who thinks we are interfering. And on occasion, we have returned young people of 12 or 13 home to drunk parents and ten or fifteen minutes later the same young person is back on the street. But we have had more successes than failures.

"We knew when we set up this programme it would expand and grow, but we didn't think that it would have gone as far as it has or as quickly as it has. Now other areas are coming to us and safer neighbourhood projects are expanding to the Lower Falls and greater Lenadoon. Hopefully within the next year it will be Belfast wide.

"The bottom line is that this project is working. The whole community has bought into it. All of us are up for it, we're ready for it, but we could still use more help and we would like to appeal to people to come out and assist us. The neck of it all is just being on the ground. It's being there, and being willing to go out and do something about it."