31 October 2008 

 As you can imagine much has happened since – good and bad - so with no more ado I’d best bring you up to date with what’s been going on. Well, the past six months have been as much about endings as anything.

For a start, Bcda’s Policy development Project came to an end. The whole premise of this Project was to encourage Bcda to develop and appreciate the role of policy and the need for policy and how the organisation could potentially play a part in the creation and development of policy for shared neighbourhoods or, if necessary, adopt a challenge role to lobby for the need for such policy in a sectarian society like NI emerging from conflict.

For the first time Bcda also had the resources to respond to relevant consultations more fully e.g. affordable housing and to commission the research you can download from this site e.g. ‘Cultural diversity and tolerance’ (Wilson, 2008) & ‘A Shared Today’ (Wilson, 2007).

The Policy Project started at a favourable time in 2006 when A Shared Future (OFMDFM 2005a) was still on the table; but it soon became clear that this had been shelved and the climate had therefore become more negative. This required a change in approach by Bcda and more learning. Indeed learning was a big feature of this Project – about politics and lobbying and how ‘government’ functioned etc. This learning was enhanced by study at University of Ulster in relation to Equity Diversity and Interdependence principles and practice by the members of the shared neighbourhood team, including for a while by the Hallion herself.

A second aspect of the Policy project involved ensuring that Bcda’s creative practice was brought into play in relation to policy – hence the use of socio-drama at the policy conference in September 2008 (Cohesion, Sharing and \inclusion: Sharing the Learning from Ballynafeigh, McFarlane, 2008) and at the ‘A Shared What’ event in December 200, the production of the graphic novel (Back on the Road, Simpson & McAnenna, 2008) and also the exploration of ‘legislative theatre’ (Brady, 2008). We felt that such approaches had the potential to make policy and the need for policy change more meaningful by relating things to events in people’s ordinary lives and in community practitioners’ own experience– especially in a society where politics and lobbying are still so foreign and ‘new’ and we are only acquiring the skills to engage in it. The relevant reports, research and videos can be viewed and/or downloaded at the relevant Policy Project section of the website.

The Hallion thinks that the Policy project really helped the Bcda staff team to appreciate its own strength and significance in NI community development and also its skill in relation to difficult issues such as sharing and collaboration with others - and the fact that Bcda  could easily function in a regional as well as urban environment due to the relevance of the skills and expertise held by the individual members of the staff team and the relevance of our experience of dealing with and working in diversity.

It’s is pity that the Bcda team has been broken up due to the end of the Project and the failure of Bcda’s first Peace 3 bid -  in spite of the success of Bcda’s first Shared Neighbourhood Conference in September 2008. As a result Bcda’s policy and creative approaches work, will have to be rebuilt -–  valuable  time has been lost

The end of the Policy Project has also meant the loss of the talents of Anne McKay the Policy Worker. Anne is a great loss to Bcda. We will miss her insight and her commitment to the organisation and its values. However, one good development to report is the birth of Cara, Anne and Harry’s new daughter. We wish them all well in their new demanding role as a family!!

Another ending to report is that all Bcda’s Peace 2+ training programmes were formally closed down this September. That’s Journeys and DYNAMO (Develop Yourself now and Move On). I think they were great projects and achieved a great deal. Of course as the Hallion I’m very biased, but you can read the evaluation reports and view participants’ podcasts under the appropriate project sections of the website.

I must also take the opportunity to point out the needs these projects were set up to address still exist. People continue to ring up asking the Community House staff about training and how we can help them, and sadly all we can do is refer them on. We’ve even had to create a waiting list though we know that there are no resources to deliver anything but people seem to be reassured with the fact that their name is on a list of some kind. Perhaps they feel that if we have their details we’ll get in touch as soon as we have the means to recommence the programmes.

Of course we all know that body blow that has been dealt to the community education sector in Northern Ireland will take years to recover from. The men and women that Bcda supported are not in a position to attend a Further Education College. They have other pressing needs e.g.- child care and other caring responsibilities, lack of confidence, bad prior experience of education etc. They cannot commit to college attendance.

With the demise of the training programmes 3 great staff also lost their jobs – but thankfully all moved on to new positions in the sector. Geraldine and Billy are both now employed by NI Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO) and Sandy is working for Community Drug Awareness (CODA). The Hallion wishes them well.

I’d love to hear your comments on some of these issues. I promise I’ll reply.

Before I conclude, I suppose the saddest thing to happen in the last months was the death of Andy Berndt, Bcda’s long-time artist in residence. Many of you nay have attended classes or participated in projects alongside Andy in the past few years.

He’d been ill with cancer and had fought that enemy as hard as he could for over a year, but in the end he lost the fight. Andy never got to see his final art piece through to the end. This was a collage of Bcda’s vision which he had been working on with volunteers. However, everyone involved had agreed to complete the project which will be launched at the Christmas Drop- in at the Community House on Monday the 15th December at 4pm,- and of course we  will be featuring this on the site.

I’ll end now. The Hallion’s next blog will no doubt be more positive and cheerful with good news such as the repainting of the Community House and the Christmas Drip-In to report on so till next time –

Cheers and allabest

The Hallion

31st March 2008

Easter was so early this tear that it sort of way didn't feel right. I can't remeber when St Patrick's day  and Good Friday fell so close together but any way the hallion went to donegal on Easter Tuesday  for a bit of stormy wind, rain  and guinness and found these in full measure. She didn't do a lot when she was these but whaterver she did it took all day to do it and she has returned to work much refreshed and ready for what promises to be a very busy period indeed.

For a start Bcda's Annual General meeting is looming at the end of the month- 1st May at the latest - so there's that to plan and repare for and there's the Annual Report to write. Nearly all Bcda's  staff will also be struggling to wind projects down and complete final assessments and all the other associated documentation required by funders to claose projects down. It's really hard to be cheerful in such an atmosphere  when so many people will soon be leaving and skills and talents lost from the organisation, and perhaps fom the sector itself.

I was reading an article the other day which stated that £100 million pounds of EU peace II funds have not yet been spent. What is going to happen to this money? oops - will have to finish this later because lunch is ready !!

Well two weeks or so have passed and the Hallion has been pretty busy.First, there was the task of writing essays for her course on 'Equity, Diversity and Interdependence' at the UNESCO Centre at Univ of Ulster in Coleraine.

That meant sitting up in the wee bedroom at home typing at the ancient PC and banjaxed oul printer, blethering and blathering on the page and quoting and so on, usually with a very fat cat lying across her knees or trying to dance on the keyboard (if sufficient attention was not forthcoming.  It was like hell in a hatbox-.......I 'm not exactly sure if that wee saying is appropriate here, but I really like it.