Urban Villages

Oral Answers to Questions — Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:00 pm on 29 February 2016.

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Photo of John Dallat John Dallat Social Democratic and Labour Party 2:00, 29 February 2016

2. Mr Dallat asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister how much money they have allocated to the Strategic Investment Board for the delivery of the Together: Building a United Community Urban Villages programme. (AQO 9722/11-16)

Photo of Martin McGuinness Martin McGuinness Sinn Féin

With your permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will ask junior Minister McCann to answer this question.

Photo of Jennifer McCann Jennifer McCann Sinn Féin

We have allocated £2·1 million to the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) for the delivery of the Urban Villages programme in 2015-16. That funding covers staffing costs for the SIB team and revenue funding for scoping and early engagement work in each urban village. These activities include capacity building; working with children and young people; and a series of creative and educational projects being taken forward by organisations such as National Museums, Libraries NI, NI Screen, and the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium.

The urban village team is currently undertaking a programme of engagement within each of the five urban villages, and stakeholder engagement workshops are taking pace until next month. The outcome of that engagement will be the creation of an integrated development framework for each urban village, which will detail the capital and revenue projects identified from the extensive stakeholder engagement.

Photo of John Dallat John Dallat Social Democratic and Labour Party

The Minister will no doubt be aware that, in a couple of weeks' time, Members of the Assembly will go on the hustings to give an account of themselves. Does she seriously believe that enough has been done to build our communities? Given that only one peace wall has fallen, this really has been cooked in a darkened room.

Photo of Jennifer McCann Jennifer McCann Sinn Féin

I am not really sure what the Member's supplementary question is, but I have indicated to him the amount of money that has been spent on Urban Villages thus far. Quite a lot of work has been done already on the one in the Bogside and Fountain area of Derry, which, although not in the Member's constituency is in his immediate area. We have also brought money into communities through the social investment fund. So, I think that there has been a lot of investment in the community infrastructure. Indeed, I have seen at first hand some of the work done as a result of money provided by the strategic investment fund and Together: Building a United Community. Two weeks ago on Saturday, I was at a seminar where hundreds of young people who took part in the United Youth programme and summer camps came together to meet people from different communities, sometimes for the first time in their life. They came together to build friendships and relationships that will, hopefully, last a lifetime and lead to reconciliation. So, a lot of work has been done through that particular strategy.

Photo of Gregory Campbell Gregory Campbell Shadow DUP Spokesperson (International Development), Shadow DUP Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)

The junior Minister referred to work being done in various areas, including Londonderry. Is she able to give the House and the wider community any idea of where she sees the community across Northern Ireland being in, say, five years' time, at the end of the next Assembly mandate, after the Together: Building a United Community programme has had a chance to roll out?

Photo of Jennifer McCann Jennifer McCann Sinn Féin

As I said in my previous answer, I and the other junior Minister have been going out and speaking directly to, in particular, young people from the United Youth programme and the summer camps, as well as people in the Urban Villages who are going to be in shared housing and shared education. I would like to think that that work will be taken forward in the next mandate. I think that it is very important work, particularly for young people in our community. We need to show leadership and the way forward for people to be able to come together. We have built peace, but now we need to build reconciliation. I am hopeful that that will continue with the Together: Building a United Community strategy. That is not the only strategy; other things need to be done as well. It is about basing it on equality and equality of opportunity, particularly for all our children and young people.