Springboard Opportunities recently launched an impact report focusing on their Wall2Wall project, capturing insights into the lives of young people who grew up living beside Belfast’s longest peace line.
The report entitled Peace Walls: An Impact Report Capturing Youth Voices reveals the challenges and hopes of a generation living with a legacy of division.
The Community Relations Council supports the organisation through its Core Funding Scheme.
Wall2Wall is a cross-community initiative, working with young people aged 16-20 years who live on either side of the Cupar Way peace line in Belfast, helping them build understanding between the Shankill and Clonard communities. The report depicts experiences of the young participants and how living in the shadow of an interface has impacted their lives.
Over the duration of the project, participants gained a greater understanding of the reasons for the existence of peace barriers, exploring local and global viewpoints on conflict and reconciliation.
Participants had the opportunity to take part in an overseas visit to Cyprus, to learn and share with Greek and Turkish counterparts enabling them to engage with peers living in another divided society. The trip consisted of historical tours, workshops, peer to peer learning and group reflection sessions to help participants gain insight into the impact of division but more importantly the importance of peacebuilding and effective cross community work.
The external evaluation of the Wall2Wall project, which was carried out by independent evaluator Dr. Shelley McKeown Jones from Oxford University Innovation Ltd, found that the project was personally and socially ‘transformational,’ with potential knock-on effects for local communities.
One participant highlighting the impact of Wall2Wall said, “Joining the Wall2Wall group wasn’t something I had planned to do but I am glad I did. We talked about the wall and division and for the first time I understood so many different perspectives on this place we called home. I started to create my own beliefs on things rather than just taking on what other people had told me.”
Another participant on the programme outlined the impact the project had on not just them but their wider family circle: “The project has brought different perspectives to my family. They always worried about me spending time on the other side of the wall, but Wall2Wall changed that. I have seen their perspective shift. Now I move more freely through the city and my family now have the belief that there’s hope for interface violence to stop.”
Read the PeaceWalls Impact Report here.
A video documenting participants’ experiences of the Wall2Wall project capturing their personal journeys can be viewed below: