Urban II
The North Belfast Partnership is the delivery body for the Urban II Programme. The Programme is one of the EU Community Initiatives and will focus on the most disadvantaged areas of inner North Belfast. 'Urban II aims to regenerate North Belfast into a vibrant, safe and viable urban community for its people, its environment and its economy'. The Partnership was successful in securing the Programme for inner North Belfast, the only area in Northern Ireland with an URBAN II Programme. Research demonstrated that North Belfast exhibits inner city decline was exacerbated by ethnic-religious fracturing. Approximately €17m (£12m) is available up to 2006, which will be spent on projects that bring about positive change in North Belfast. After local consultation, the priority areas for development were agreed as - the physical and social resources of the area;
- the resources of local people to gain access to lasting employment opportunities;
- and improving how groups and organisations work individually and together.
The Programme is managed by a Programme Management Executive (PME) which includes representatives from the community, relevant central and local government agencies and local politicians. This group works together in partnership as a delegated sub-committee of the board of the Partnership. A total of £6,407,691 has now been committed under the Programme. This represents 53% of total available funds. All funds must be committed by 31 December 2006. The Programme Management Executive has adopted a dual approach to programme delivery: the availability of local community grants alongside more strategic programmatic initiatives. This demonstrates an attempt to accommodate the competing expectations of the local community and the European Commission while also recognising the capacity, and indeed available 'permissions' of the fragmented target community to address difficult issues on a broad based and cross community basis. PROJECT GRANTS
Urban II has now offered project grant support to 55 community projects for specific time related activity with demonstrable outcomes based on addressing local need. These projects tend to fall into 3 categories: STRATEGIC PROGAMMES
The PME recognise that it will require strategic and collaborative effort to address many of the complex problems faced by the disadvantaged communities of North Belfast. Area wide initiatives have been designed, implemented at a network rather than local group level, in order to maximise partnership working and long term sustainability.
These initiatives include:
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