New Decade – Lost Opportunities Or Time To Cement The Peace?

In the latest of our Guest Blogs, former Chair of the Community Relations Council Peter Osborne talks about Peacebuilding and the transformative potential for rethinking how we deliver education in Rural Communities.

This is one of those crossroads periods.  We have had them before.  No doubt we will have more of them in years to come.

The 2020s will be a decade that either cements a hard-won peace process or epitomises a lost opportunity for peace that this generation has carelessly, wastefully, whimsically tossed away.

Be in no doubt a forward flow to our peace process is not inevitable.  We can go back, or we can go forward.  This crossroads moment means that we cannot afford to stand still.

Over the last years the energy and intellectual drive for building the peace has come from civil society and the community.  Ordinary people doing extraordinary things – then again it was ordinary people doing extraordinary things within communities who protected this place from itself during the darkest days too.

They are people that get little recognition but who selflessly and skilfully keep on going, understanding that the core to reconciliation in a still divided and segregated region is about relationships.  It is about what you do with your neighbours, and how towns and villages collectively explore the future together.

In rural areas the community tensions and divisions may be less visible than at interfaces in the big urban areas – but they exist nevertheless.  People live their lives differently.  Children and young people often socialise apart, play different sports, attend different clubs.  Adults often have different patterns of behaviour, shop and socialise in ways and places that might speak to our background more than we’d care to admit.

It is getting better.  The absence of violence certainly eases constraints on behaviour and ambition.

It is, though, time to better recognise the value of cross community work and it is time to start taking bigger steps forward. 

Beyond the good relations activists, we also need to acknowledge and tackle the reasons why this society is divided in the first place – if systemic change is not addressed this society will be just continually trying to manage dysfunctional relationships rather than stopping the dysfunction at source. 

Relationship dismantles prejudice but people are not born behaving differently; it is a habit that forms over our early years.

The Ulster University UNESCO centre has recently published a report “Isolated Together” that recognises while rural towns and villages may appear mixed there is often markers and behaviours that differentiate between Catholics and Protestants. 

This new UNESCO report suggests there are 274 of 817 schools in Northern Ireland below the sustainability  threshold of 105 pupils.  It identifies 32 pairs of schools in rural areas (64 schools in total) one Controlled and one Catholic Maintained, that are less than a mile apart and are struggling with numbers.  Of these 32 pairs of schools, ten of them have fewer than 50 pupils, yet just a few hundred yards away a similar size school may be struggling with similar numbers.

In order to keep the positive benefits of small local schools (the peer learning, handiness for children and parents alike) is it time to start a hitherto unimaginable conversation about whether the schools and children should now come together?

The report shows that for each of those 32 pairs of schools the average cost per pupil per year is £4,250 compared to an average cost in a school the size of both combined of £3,163.  That would be a saving to the school system of over £1,000 per pupil if amalgamation took place.

So, here is an ambitious idea.  For ten years after an amalgamation of rural schools the money saved should be kept within the local area, for parents to decide, together, what to spend it on over and above the money that would be spent anyway by the Department on the amalgamated school.  For an amalgamated school of 105 pupils that would be an additional investment of over £100,000 per year or £1 million over ten years.

What would your priority be?  Tackling transportation challenges for schools in rural areas, tackling educational under-achievement, extra tuition, extra books and educational tools?  Something else?

On top of that the village would have the social benefit of all those children and young people learning and developing together.  It would be a huge boost to a reconciliation process that needs fresh ideas and new impetus.

https://www.ulster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/506878/TEUU-Report-03-Isolated-Pairs.pdf

Poles Apart?

Our Charmain recently visited Poland as part of the programme "Our Freedom and Ours". Here are some of her thoughts on the visit and how it made an impact on her.

A few months ago, I registered to take part in a programme called Our Freedom and Yours. The programme itself was fantastic in that we learned about the key historical aspects of WW2 and we also learned about the role of the Polish Airmen in the Battle of Britain. The more I heard about their role in the war, the more I started to feel a connection between them and me. I kept thinking to myself “these guys fought for the freedom we all enjoy today” but why in some instances are some people so hostile to those people from Poland and other European countries who come and live here in NI. Some people in NI have welcomed migrants with open arms whilst some  others have been openly hostile and racist.

Half way through the programme, to my surprise I found out a trip to Poland was arranged. I was thrilled as I had never been to Poland. I had my own perceptions, I thought Poland would always be 6 feet under a blanket of snow or it would be economically underdeveloped. You might wonder why I had these perceptions, I suppose it was from images I have seen online or pictures I have seen in books, most of it around the Holocaust to be honest.

How wrong was I? When I arrived the first thing to hit me was heat; lovely warm sunshine. Well, I thought to myself, that’s one perception blown out the water. Then I saw Warsaw I fell in love. The buildings, the atmosphere, the ice-cream.  You couldn’t beat it! I thought to myself, how or why did I ever think Poland was so bad? In contrast I spoke to our tour facilitator who told me the same story as to how when he first thought of coming to NI his family thought he was mad and that he was putting himself in direct danger.  

We went to the Warsaw Museum and the concentration camp at Majdanek. Never in my life have I ever been so shocked, so moved, so scared as when I was at that concentration camp. I can’t describe what I saw or felt but the memorial with tonnes of ashes from those who died said it all. The heat of the holding rooms for those waiting for the gas chambers, the 100,000 pairs of shoes of those who lost their lives. A set of baby shoes sitting in the corner, I cried. I connected with the Polish people there and then. I suppose the reality hit me right in the face, as a mother of two children myself, I just felt deep despair not only for that young baby which lost it’s life but the hundreds of thousands who followed behind him or her.

I learned  of the suffering, the hardship, the pain. I read account after account of Holocaust survivors and I felt a connection with home. The connection for me was how one human could inflict on another, how human beings can react in times in conflict and war to their “enemy”.  What I found was no matter where in the world you are one thing is for sure, human suffering is the same, human pain is the same.

What I did come away with was a renewed sense of admiration for the Polish community. Resilient, that is the only word I can describe them, incredibly resilient. I now have nothing but respect for them as a community and as a society. To come from total destruction to building a city like Warsaw which was completely demolished, and I mean completely demolished in 60 years, takes nothing but sheer determination, guts, sweat and tears.

What I came home with was a renewed sense of commonality between NI people and the Polish community. These programmes have a great way of quickly letting you see you are not too far apart from each other, given all we have both gone through atrocities. We have connections in relation to conflict and war, in connection to suffering and pain, connections in how post conflict we try to build a society where people can live together in peace.

We went far here in NI in relation to hatred and we destroyed each other and demonised each other in the process. In Poland they did that on a much larger scale and the unthinkable Holocaust was the result. We all need to work at peace to ensure lessons are learnt and history is not repeated.

We have so much to learn from each other and I will be continuing to help communities make links in whatever way possible personally and professionally following my experience.

It is one programme and one visit I will never forget for the rest of my life.

Creating Conversations Around Palliative & End of Life Care

The sixth annual Palliative Care Week coordinated by All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care (AIIHPC) is taking place from 8 to 14 September 2019. The week aims to raise awareness of the difference palliative care can make to people with any life-limiting illness or condition, to carers and to families throughout the island of Ireland.

This year’s theme is ‘Palliative Care: Surrounding You With Support’, focusing on how people with palliative care needs are being supported in the community. This can involve support from primary care (such as GPs, public health nurses, district nurses), from hospices, hospitals, nursing homes, and wider community supports beyond formal health and social care services. Support can be provided for weeks, months and years.

People with palliative care needs are featuring in the campaign including Ballymena couple, Rosemary and Tony O’ Mullan.

Tony comes from a farming family based in Dunloy, Co Antrim, and was a full-time farmer until his diagnosis in 2017. He attended his GP when he didn’t feel well enough to attend a family dinner and following extensive tests was diagnosed with two different types of cancer.  He explains: “It was a very mixed up sort of a diagnosis. There were two different complaints. There was myeloma (cancer of the plasma cells), a treatable type of cancer. So when I heard I had cancer, well not the greatest thing in the world. But then when I heard that it was treatable, ah well, we’ll have a go. And here I am, living when I should be somewhere else.”

Following Tony’s initial treatment, Rosemary explained how invaluable the palliative care he received from the Marie Curie community nursing team was.  She said, “The (chemotherapy) was very, very severe on him and then he got home he wasn’t able to climb stairs or anything. So he got the hospital bed and Marie Curie girls stepped in immediately. I mean, they were just amazing.”

Tony continued, “If I wasn’t getting the care I’m getting I’m not so sure where I would be. I don’t think I’d be lying here. The family are important too. I can stay at home. Rosemary can stay at home. The whole family is all a unit.”

Brendan O’Hara is a programme manager at All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care, which is coordinating Palliative Care Week. Thanking the O’Mullan family and all those from across Ireland who have spoken of their palliative care experiences for this year’s campaign, Brendan said it was important for people to have these conversations.

Brendan said: “We are keen to create more conversations around palliative care and Tony and Rosemary O’Mullan’s story will contribute to this. These conversations need to take place across the palliative care sector, across the wider health and social care system, and across the whole of society. As we create conversations around palliative care, particularly involving people with direct experience, we hope more people will feel empowered to think about how palliative care could help them.”

To view Tony and Rosemary’s video and the videos of all those who are taking part in the Palliative Care Week campaign click here

For more information on palliative care in general, visit www.thepalliativehub.com

5 things small charities can do to promote legacy fundraising

In the first of a series of guest blogs, Dr Claire Routley talks about how smaller charities are now getting to grips with Legacy Fundraising, how it can be a vital income source for many groups, and offers some tips on how to promote it better within your group

Every year generous people write gifts into their wills to support their favourite charities, ultimately giving around £3 billion in legacy gifts annually. Charities are increasingly investing in legacy fundraising i.e. they’re becoming proactive in encouraging their stakeholders to consider doing the same.


Historically, legacy income was largely concentrated amongst the biggest charities, but recently, the picture has been changing, with an increasing number of often smaller charities benefiting. Indeed, small charities are performing particularly well. As Meg Abdy of Legacy Foresight points out, it’s the smallest, youngest charities who are now seeing the fastest growth – 10 per cent a year.  This trend is only likely to continue with the legacy market predicted to grow dramatically over the next few decades.

Even the smallest charities can get involved in legacy fundraising – and there’s a lot you can do to promote gifts in wills that won’t cost you very much at all, as per the tips that follow.

1. Pull together the information a potential legacy donor might need
Even if you don’t actively promote gifts in wills, and even if you intend to do no other legacy promotion, it’s a good idea to have the information someone might need if they come to your organisation proactively. Indeed, not having access to the correct information has been proven to be a real bugbear for solicitors supporting people who are writing charities into their wills.
Helpful information is likely to include your official name, address and registered charity number. It’s also a good idea to think through whether you’re happy to accept restricted gifts i.e. those that must be spent on a specific project, and what kinds of projects you would be comfortable enabling a donor to focus their gift on. Are you likely to still be running the same kind of work in 10-20 years, for example?

2. Add a line about legacies to your literature
Whenever you’re reprinting or developing materials for various audiences, from leaflets for service users, to email footers, to donor communications, can you include a line about the importance of giving in general and legacies in particular? You might, for example, include something like ‘XYZ organisation is a charity, and we rely on donations and legacies’. Often people don’t realise that our organisations are actually charities, or that it’s possible to support us philanthropically, so this approach could benefit your general fundraising, as well as getting the message out there about legacies.

3. Approach those who are closest to you
One of the most powerful ways of talking about legacy giving is through case studies of what other people have done.  For small charities, this can become a bit of a chicken and egg scenario – they’re just getting started in the area so don’t have donor case studies. Trustees and senior staff can be a great place to start. If they include the charity in their wills, they can share their story with others through charity communications such as the website, social media and talks in the community. Their gifts don’t have to be particularly large – it’s their story which really matters.

4. Tell stories
Linked to point 3, story-telling more generally is a great way to encourage people to think about gifts in wills, whether that’s stories about people who’ve died and the difference their gifts have made, stories about work funded by legacy gifts or stories about people who plan on leaving a gift in the future. Talking about legacies through stories is a really gentle way to introduce the idea of leaving a gift and can take the fear out of talking about something which involves the taboos of death and money. We can share these stories through our existing communications from Facebook posts, to our websites, to our annual report.

5. Encourage colleagues to talk about legacy giving
The legacy giving message can be amplified many times over if all the staff and volunteers in a charity are confident to talk about legacy gifts. If someone asks a volunteer in your charity how they could support you, how many of them would mention a gift in a will as an option? Or if they were giving a presentation, how many people would include a slide about gifts in wills? You can take the principles already mentioned here, such as repeating the message little and often, or telling stories, and use them internally as well as externally. This can help to normalise the idea of legacies as a way to support your organisation for your colleagues. If resources will allow, you could also provide them with some training to increase their confidence around the subject. The more people who are confident talking about legacies and including them in their wider work, the greater reach you can achieve with your message.

Of course, as time goes on there’s a lot more you can do to spread the legacy message, and, if budget allows, you can begin to invest in paid promotions. However, by starting with these top tips, you can begin to let people know that, through a gift in their will, they can make a real difference to people in their local communities – and what could be a better legacy to leave behind than that?

[1] https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/voices/meg-abdy-key-facts-and-trends-in-today-s-legacy-market.html

[2] https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/05/22/legacy-boom-years-predicted-baby-boomers-begin-die/#.XTHqVuhKg2w

[3] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nvsm.413

[4] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/nvsm.1549

Claire works for Legacy Fundraising Ltd and can be contacted by emailing claire@legacyfundraising.co.uk

She can also be found on Twitter @claireyjaneR

Missing the target-Part 2

As discussed in last week’s blog we know that there is a huge need for social housing, and we aren’t building nearly enough to meet that need.  

Although a chronic problem particularly in North & West Belfast, it’s also a problem in many rural communities.  The Rural Residents Forum (RRF) is facilitated by RCN and has representatives from across Northern Ireland.  It meets to discuss issues related to the provision of social housing in rural communities.  The RRF has been concerned about the target for new build social housing in rural areas being missed in four of the last five years.  RRF representatives have been involved in a series of meetings with housing spokespeople from all political parties, with Housing Executive staff (including the Chief Executive), with Housing Associations and with Department for Communities officials trying to get answers on why the target has been missed.  

From these meetings the following issues were identified as making the development of new build social housing in rural areas more difficult:

·       Sites in smaller towns and villages can be more expensive as landowners are holding on to try and maximise profits now that the housing market is recovering.  The Housing Associations are saying that in many cases they are being outbid by private developers for sites. 

·       Sites in smaller settlements can be harder to access and more expensive to bring services to.  This makes some sites too expensive for Housing Associations.

·       Housing Associations tell us that, often, they are facing objections to social housing at planning application stage as other residents don’t want social housing built beside them.

The upshot of all this is that the target for new build social housing in rural areas is being missed and renters are faced with a choice of renting in the private sector, if those properties are available in their area, or moving to larger towns where some social housing is still available.  The private rented sector has grown significantly in many rural areas (albeit from a low base) and is often the only option for people needing housing who can’t afford to buy.  There are fewer protections for private rented sector renters and one of the main problems is that tenants are forced to move when short term leases end.

Tenants who opt for the private rented sector are no longer considered in housing need, they have been housed, so they come off the Housing Executive’s waiting list.  This transfers the provision of rented housing from the public sector to the private sector.  The problem with that is that low income renters will need help with meeting their housing costs through housing benefit.  So huge amounts of public money are transferring from the public purse to private landlords through housing benefit.  The alternative is to move to the towns where social housing may still be available.  That leads to smaller towns and villages losing young families with knock on effects on schools, GP surgeries and businesses and a “gentrification” of smaller towns and villages.

Issues like the increase in hospital waiting lists or cuts to school budgets are in the media constantly but the shortage of social housing isn’t getting the same coverage.  Why is that? In my view housing is different.  Housing and the land that it sits on are commodities that are traded, and profit extracted from.  Why wouldn’t a landowner hang onto a development site to try and make as much money as possible?  There are further steps that could be taken if the political will existed.  Both the Department for Communities and the Housing Executive have powers to vest land for social housing.  To our knowledge these powers are rarely used in rural areas.  An uplift in the Housing Association Grant could be introduced to incentivise Housing Associations to build in rural areas.  A Land Value Tax could be introduced which would prevent speculation on development sites.  These more radical approaches will not happen in the absence of a Minister who can make these decisions.  That’s little consolation to the families who languish on the waiting list and whose lives are put on hold.

Missing the target....

Missing the target for New Build Social Housing in Rural Communities.

Part 1
In this 2 part Blog, our policy officer Aidan Campbell explains the shortfall in new build social housing in rural communities and what that means for prospective tenants and the communities they live in..

Photo by Ron Gemmell

Social housing in Northern Ireland is provided by social landlords below market rent for people who are in housing need.  Up until 1996 the Housing Executive was the main provider of social housing and is still the biggest social landlord in Northern Ireland.  It rents over 85,000 properties, but it no longer builds new social housing.  In the late 1990s a Housing Policy review transferred responsibility for building new social housing from the Housing Executive to the Housing Associations.   Housing Associations are independent, not for profit, social businesses that provide homes and support for people in housing need.  The Department for Communities provides Housing Association Grant (HAG), through the Housing Executive to the Associations to finance new build social housing. HAG is approximately 50% of the total capital cost per unit.  The remainder of the cost of new build social housing must be raised by the Housing Associations borrowing money from the private market or re-investing from their own funds. 

The Housing Executive, although no longer building new homes, undertakes a range of functions under its regional services remit.  If you are in housing need you apply through the Housing Executive.  They assess each applicant using a points-based system and a common waiting list is created from which both Housing Executive and Housing Associations allocate homes to those most in need.  Those applicants with 30+ points are said to be in “housing stress”. In theory this is how the system is supposed to work.  In practice, if you want to live in an area where there is high demand for social housing (such as North & West Belfast) you can get stuck on the waiting list even if you are deemed as being in housing stress.

Each year a target for new build social housing is set by Government.  The Programme for Government Outcomes Delivery Plan 2018/19 says that it will use the numbers of households in housing stress to measure and report on progress.  It also stated that in 18/19 1850 new social home starts were to be provided.  A separate rural target, which is a percentage of the overall target, is also set by the Housing Executive as part of its commitment to rural proofing.  This recognises that a percentage of social housing applicants who put down a “rural” area as their first choice when applying.  The Housing Executive defines “rural” areas as being those settlements with a population of less than 5000 people and open countryside.  For four out of the past five years the rural new build target has been missed.  The target for new build social housing in NI last year was 1850 units with 1786 started.  11.5% of that 1850 target (212 units) were supposed to be built in rural communities.  This reflects the 11.5% of applicants on the waiting list who wanted a rural area as their first choice.  Of the 212 target 129 units were provided in rural areas.  So, 96% of the overall target was achieved and the shortfall was in rural areas. 

There is a huge mismatch in the level of new build social housing compared to the level of housing need across Northern Ireland. Simply put we aren’t building enough social housing.   According to NISRA’s Northern Ireland Housing Statistics 2017/18  report 36,198 applicants were on the social housing waiting list.  Of those 24,148 were deemed to be in housing stress with 30+ points.   Although the overall target set by government for last year was almost achieved (1786 starts out of a target of 1850) it won’t make much impact on the overall waiting list.  Even if no one else came onto the waiting list it would take 13 years to build enough social housing at our current rate of new starts to house those people already in housing stress.  

In previous decades the rate of social house building was more than twice what we are building now:

“In the 1980s the Housing Executive typically built more than 5000 dwellings per year.”[1]

This is a chronic issue in North and West Belfast that has been highlighted extensively by the Participation and Practice of Rights Project and lots of other community organisations in the city.  It is also an issue, though less visible, in rural communities.  

This blog will be continued next week when Aidan talks about the provision of social housing in rural communities.

---

[1] Social Housing in NI: Challenges and Policy Options, Joe Frey UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence Oct 2018 available at

Rural Broadband NI-Life in the Slow Lane......

Our Director Kate Clifford blogs on the vagaries of rural broadband and the potential that could be unlocked in rural areas if it was improved….

Photo by energepic.com from Pexels

Tuesday night in rural Northern Ireland. A household comprising of two adults, two teenagers, both at exam stage, and a younger child. It was a normal evening. Homeworks and study being tackled by the older kids, dinner being made. ‘Get off the internet’ shouts the six year old who is trying to watch Netflix. I can see the TV frozen and buffering. The 15 year old shouts ‘get off the internet, I need to download my maths paper’. I’m checking work emails and the phone is buffering, and the final straw comes when number one daughter screams ‘Get off the internet!! I’m trying to download my exam timetable’.

In our rural household, a download speed of between 1.7Mbps and 0.07 Mbps depending on the time of night, means that two devices cannot run simultaneously. BT Infinity hasn’t reached us yet. We live beyond Infinity. Most evenings the Netflix account will buffer and buffer until we do a search to locate a rogue mobile or tablet device that might be stealing our band width.

Last summer our internet speed was so woefully bad we were reduced to sitting in our driveway borrowing broadband from next door’s much improved connection!  

We are not too far from our nearest town and we can afford to find alternative ways to boost the speed of our connection. But with increasing reliance on the internet for homework, work, communication and everyday life I wonder about households with worse access than ours and children who fall behind in school because they cannot afford a permanent connection nor mobile data.

I wonder about rural businesses who depend on internet connections for payments, orders, advertising and communication with their customer base and wonder just how disadvantaged they are when compared with businesses in urban centres. How much more do they pay for reliable and consistent broadband connection just because of their geographical setting?

The roll out of faster and faster speeds in urban centres is in danger of deepening a significant digital divide across this region. As urban populations become better connected and better served with faster and faster download speeds, rural areas are being left behind and playing a constant game of ‘catch up’ as technology improves and speeds increase.

The economic, social and environmental benefits of the proposed government £150m investment in ultrafast fibre broadband could be worth as much £1.2 billion to rural areas of the province. That’s the estimate contained in a report commissioned by BT and published in 2018, setting out the potential benefits resulting from an investment focused in rural areas.[1]

By improving access to the internet, economic growth in rural areas could reduce the gap with more affluent urban areas. Regional inequalities permeate NI, and public policies that address it have risen in importance in recent years. Expanding broadband access offers a potential way to reduce these inequalities, enable the growth of small business and could revitalize many of our villages and towns.

In the meantime, households like ours have to prioritize who gets to use the bandwidth and when. Sometimes we share and we compromise, prioritizing homework and work obligations over TV viewing but more often we revert to type we squabble, we fight and shout ‘get off the internet!’ 

---

[1] “Fibre broadband could benefit rural economy by £1.2bn” The Newsletter 04 June 2018