Good Relations Seminars for Integrating Communities Project Phase groups

Corick House in Clogher and the Sollus Centre in Bready were the settings for recent Good Relations seminars organised by the Rural Development Council. The events were organised as part of the Integrating Communities Programme, which is funded by the International Fund for Ireland.

The events were attended by representatives of 47 of the groups that have been involved in the Project Phase of the programme to date. They began with reflection workshops whereby participants shared with each other the challenges and experiences of delivering their partnership peace building projects within each of their communities. They were followed by presentations and workshops on Good Relations. From this a key learning point which emerged was the fact that reconciliation needs to start at an individual level. In addition discussion also focused on the fact that people tend to make judgements about each other based on often limited information. Perceptions and attitudes are influenced by peoples backgrounds and personal experiences and consequently breaking down barriers and dispelling myths is an ongoing challenge for participants and wider society.

The afternoon sessions involved presentations from Suffolk and Lenadoon Interface Group (SLIG) which is an award winning community development, regeneration and peace building organisation based in the Suffolk Lenadoon interface in West Belfast. SLIG is made up of two main community organisations in the area - Lenadoon Community Forum and Suffolk Community Forum.