Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - Press Releases - Education and Youth events focus on shared future

25 April 2006

The role of education and young people in building a more inclusive society for Northern Ireland will come into focus in the next few days. Community Relations Week, which began yesterday (Monday April 24), includes major events throughout the week (April 24-30) specifically looking at the role of young people and education in building a shared future.

Education and Youth events focus on shared future

The events include a celebration evening at W5 in Belfast's Odyssey tomorrow (Wednesday April 26) organised by the Youth Council which is set to be attended by more than 300 young people. It will highlight the contribution of work undertaken by young people across Northern Ireland to improving community relations. Tonight in Lisburn's Island Centre another youth event will showcase a number of quality community relations programmes delivered within the youth service of the Education and Library Boards. This morning the Department of Education, together with the five Boards, will also be launching a guide to effective practice in the schools community relations programme.

Other events tomorrow include the release of the findings of a major study carried out by ARK (the Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive) into young peoples' attitudes to community relations and 'the other side', and a meeting of the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education's (NICIE) good relations steering group to develop a strategy for the development of its good relations activity.

Also tomorrow, Queens University Belfast is holding a roundtable discussion on how our community deals with racism and other types of discrimination affecting students and staff from black and minority ethnic groups and the Kids in Control Project will put on a performance of its cross-community theatre for teenagers at an event in Hazelwood Integrated College.

NICIE will also hold a seminar at Grosvenor House in Belfast on Friday to consider the future of integrated education in Northern Ireland.

CRC chief executive, Duncan Morrow, says that what happens in schools and among young people is crucial to the development of a more stable and inclusive society. “No single group of people has a greater stake in a shared and peaceful future than young people. ” he says.

“We are delighted that young people have asked to participate in Community Relations Week. The week offers us the opportunity to highlight real issues and challenges. Finding ways to deal with sectarianism and racism will be critical to the quality of the lives people can lead and determine how many people want to come and live here and how many feel that they need to leave.

The Department of Education will have a decisive role in setting the direction and ensuring change. It is vital that preparing young people to live and share in diversity becomes an explicit priority in education and youth work here and the necessary resources released,” he adds.

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Thousands of people across Northern Ireland will participate in Community Relations Week. The week includes more than 150 events organised directly by CRC, as well as voluntary and community organisations.

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Media contact:

Chris Harrison, Dorothy Hawe or Kathryn Anderson, JPR: 028 9076 0066, 077 6641 7550 or chris.harrison@jprni.com

Notes to editor:

The Community Relations Council, established as a registered charity in 1990, aims to build greater trust and understanding between communities in Northern Ireland across the political, cultural and religious divide.

Community Relations Week, now in its fifth year, has grown in strength and stature each year that it has taken place.