St Columb’s Park Reconciliation Trust has been awarded a PEACEPLUS contract to deliver a project based on the principles of participatory budgeting in the Tullyally and Currynierin areas.
The Dare 2 Dream project launched in November 2024 and has engaged almost 100 participants as they develop a local Resident Action Group and Youth forum across the two communities.
The Community Relations Council supports the organisation through its Core Funding Scheme.
Dare 2 Dream includes two new project staff that will be based in both communities and the emphasis of the project is Community Development, Peacebuilding and Participatory Budgeting. This wrap around approach will support the community workers and Community Associations to become more sustainable.
The Resident Action Group (which consists of six residents from each estate) has met to agree the format of the participatory budgeting/empowerment programme and have agreed the criteria and invited the local community to submit ideas for programmes that fall in under the three core pillars of the PEACEPLUS programme: Thriving Peaceful Communities; Celebrating Cultural Diversity; and Community Regeneration.
Local residents have submitted over 40 ideas, ranging from health and well-being programmes, music sessions, school eco ambassadors, kids cooking classes, coaching and sport trials to arts and crafts sessions for both community centres. The next step is for the communities to come together in a Community Vote Night to hear from these bidders and to vote for what they want to see happening in their area.
The Resident Action group will also visit other interface areas across Northern Ireland to hear how they have built relationships and partnership working practises across their respective interface areas. They will also be supported to establish a strategy for their areas independently and ultimately an overarching vision for the area as a whole.
The Dare 2 Dream project is funded through Derry City and Strabane District Council’s PEACEPLUS Local Co-Designed Action Plan and supported by PEACEPLUS, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) under the theme Thriving Peaceful Communities.
Find out more about St Columb’s Park Reconciliation Trust.