Social Affairs magazine for community/voluntary sector Website: viewdigital.org
VIEW
Issue 23, 2014
OH BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A POUND As the Welfare Bill looms over Northern Ireland, devastating figures showing a rise in poverty are released by the Joseph Rowntree charity FULL STORY ON PAGES FOUR AND FIVE
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VIEW, issue 23, 2014
Feast of film
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Troubles link
CONTENTS
Pages 6-7 Harry Reid talks to the organisers of the Belfast Film Festival about this year’s choice of movies.
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Page 11 New research from the University of Ulster has established a link between suicidal behaviour and the Troubles
Daily struggle
Carnival fun
Pages 8 Children’s social services are struggling to do more than merely respond to emergencies, a report says.
Pages 12-19 Two young girls, left, at the recent St Patrick’s Day in Belfast which was attended by thousands as the city rocked to Carnival Beat
On your bike
Oxfam backed
Page 10 The Public Health Agency is encouraging everyone to take up cycling ahead of the Giro d’Italia riding into town.
PHoToLinE Photographer Kevin cooper has more than 25 years experience in Press and Pr photography. Kevin works to a wide range of clients in community and voluntary sector organisations as well as the trade union movement. For quoTaTions conTacT Kevin cooper E: photoline@supanet.com T: 028 90777299 M: 07712044751
Pages 20-21 Donegal surfer Easkey Britton, above, is just one of the many people who have backed a new Oxfam Ireland campaign
Editorial
VIEW, the online publication for the community/voluntary sector in Northern Ireland.
A
s the Welfare Bill in Northern Ireland edges closer, the main political parties are now concentrating on council and European elections in May. The word on the street is that the DUP and Sinn Fein are close to agreeing a deal on the Bedroom Tax element of the Bill and backing an increase in the hardship fund that benefit applicants can apply to. But the feeling is that the majority of the ‘reforms’ will be implemented. If this occurs then those who rely on State support will feel a loss in real financial terms. Despite all the honeyed words from the Coalition Government at Westminster, the Welfare Reform Bill is
VIEW executive editor Brian Pelan aimed at reducing the cost of supporting those who rely on benefits to help them cope. This scenario of further Westminster financial pain ihas been heightened following the report, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which showed that there are
currently 40,000 people in Northern Ireland living in poverty. The report's authors say the decline in living standards is due to rising unemployment and a greater share of workers working part time. Against this backdrop we are witnessing continual calls from members of the Conservative Party that welfare aid should be reduced even further. Charities and community groups, who do their best, to support people in need, have warned that the system is at breaking point. Those we elect should explain how they intend to reverse this situation before they come knocking on doors in a search for votes.
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Sisters in arm as peace project ends More than 350 women gathered recently at the Titanic Centre, Belfast, to celebrate the end of the Women and Peace Building project, spearheaded by the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland (CFNI) in partnership with the Women’s Resource and Development Agency (WRDA)
and the National Women’s Council of Ireland. The two-year project has attracted more than 700 women to share their experiences of the peace process and discuss the challenges that still remain. Pictured above with Anne McVicker, WRDA (fourth from
left) and Monina Oprey (CFNI), fifth from left are representatives of the Taso Foundation, Georgia, the Dalia Foundation, Palestine, the Foundations for Peace, a global network of independent, non-partisan indigenous funding organisations and the Reconstruction Women’s Fund, Serbia.
‘We need to defend universal pensioner benefits’ By Nixon Armstrong Age Sector Platform ‘Hands Off’ is the clear message coming from older people across Northern Ireland and indeed the UK, as a new nationwide campaign continues to defend the need for universal pensioner benefits. The Hands Off campaign, which is being led by Age Sector Platform in Northern Ireland, has already been backed by some of the most influential older people’s organisations in the UK; and aims to safeguard benefits such as the winter
COMMENT fuel payment, bus pass, free prescriptions and TV licences following the 2015 general election. In response to comments made by the main political parties at Westminster indicating these benefits may be under threat, this campaign will emphasise their importance in achieving a decent standard of living for millions of pensioners across the UK, whilst also highlighting the costs
and barriers associated with means-testing such benefits. I would encourage people of all ages to sign the online e-petition and to email their local MP via the campaign website at www.handsoff.org.uk. If you’re not able to access the Internet, then simply phone 028 9031 2089 to request a batch of paper petitions. Each paper petition can accommodate 30 signatures. If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the issue will be considered for debate in the House of Commons.
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40,000 people in Northern Ireland living in poverty
T
he poorest families in Northern Ireland have suffered a dramatic fall in their income following the economic downturn, deteriorating at a markedly worse rate than the rest of UK, new research has found. The report, written by the New Policy Institute (NPI) for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), reveals the latest data showing the extent and nature of poverty in Northern Ireland. Its headline finding is a pronounced fall in income for families across the social spectrum, with the poorest seeing the largest falls. After inflation, incomes for the poorest fifth fell by 16% (£39 a week lower) – compared to 5% in the rest of
the UK on average – between 2006/07 and 2011/12 (the latest available data). Average households saw their incomes fall by 9% over the same period. The report authors say the decline is due to rising unemployment and a greater share of workers working part time. Household incomes, poverty rates and the labour market have all worsened in Northern Ireland in the last five years – in each case, this deterioration has been greater than in Great Britain. Overall, almost 400,000 people live in poverty in Northern Ireland. The report also found that over the last five years: • Poverty has risen for working age adults and children, but fallen for pensioners.
• The number of adults under 30 in poverty rose by 50% in five years. * The proportion of unemployed working age people has almost doubled to reach 6%. • The number working part-time but wanting full-time work has reached 51,000, or 4.4% of the working-age population, compared to 3.5% with the rest of GB. • There are now 27,000 more part-time workers than in 2007 and 3,000 fewer full-time workers. • The number of households where the main breadwinner is working part-time rose 30 per cent. Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of JRF, said: “This report reveals a series of
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Picture posed by models
worrying trends for Northern Ireland, with declining incomes and job prospects leading to rising poverty. “These findings are a wake-up call for governments in Stormont and Westminster: we need a comprehensive strategy to reduce poverty for people in Northern Ireland. “This means tackling the underlying causes of poverty, such as the number and quality of jobs on offer.” With welfare reform changes on the horizon, the report also found: • The under-occupation penalty – the socalled bedroom tax – will have a much greater impact in NI than GB, affecting 53 per cent of claimants compared with 23 per cent in the rest of GB.
• The move from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will also
‘These findings are a wake-up call for governments in Stormont and Westminster’ have particular significance for NI, with almost twice the proportion claiming DLA compared with the rest of GB. • Around a quarter of those reassessed
for PIP are expected to lose their entitlement altogether, with a further third receiving a lower entitlement. Tom MacInnes, co-author of the report, said: “The recession and its aftermath hit Northern Ireland harder than the rest of the UK. In particular, the rise in unemployment and part time work has hurt family incomes. “With welfare reform on the horizon, already diminished incomes may decline even further. Reforms that cut the incomes of those supported by benefits or that require more people to actively seek work – without improvements in the quality of jobs on offer – are likely to exacerbate problems further.”
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Bringing the best of world cinema to Belfast Belfast Film Festival director Michele Devlin and programmer Stephen Hackett tell Harry Reid, that the10-day event, which straddles late March and early April, is just the most visible element of a year-round commitment to use film as a vehicle to collaborate with communities from across the city to examine what matters to them most
D
iversity is a word used frequently by both Michele Devlin and Stephen Hackett as they reflect on the contents of this year’s Belfast Film Festival. Though this is the diversity of a vibrantly animated range of vivacious cinematic voices rather than the monotone soul killing tick box travesty that is officialdom’s lifeless parody version. The pair have agreed to an interview despite there being less than a week before the start of the 14th edition of this annual event. Ducking out of the gun metal grey sky of a Belfast mid March mid afternoon, I register the buzz around the
Festival’s Cathedral quarter office testifying that at this juncture there are many potential alternative calls on the time of the festival’s director and programmer. Yet as the discussion unfolds it becomes apparent that issuing a number of invitations to those active in Belfast’s various communities is a priority for both of them. “What I’m proudest of about this year’s programme is its diversity in terms of both the spectrum of issues the films cast light on and the number of countries they come from,” says Michele. “There are fewer American and UK perspectives
than in previous years and that makes for a richer and more diverse international selection of voices for the healthy representation of locally produced material to blend with.” The breadth of both countries represented – 36 – and of the issues addressed across the 120 features, documentaries, shorts and associated events, is indeed impressive. While the festival displays a wry sense of fun, as can be seen for example by screenings of school-based classics Gregory’s Girl and Goodbye Mr Chips in east Belfast schools and joyously celebrates the musical bravura of Ray
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Charles and Marvin Gaye by showing live concert footage of these R&B and soul masters in Belfast’s increasingly iconic city centre pub/music venue The Sunflower, much of what is offered falls variously under the ‘gritty’ and ‘thought provoking’ categories. Topics like addiction, the impact of conflict on people in Bosnia, the Basque country and the nature of sex trafficking, come under the filmic microscope. Other sets of films are set to offer distinctive takes on subjects, ranging from childhood, to having a disability and the nature of spiritually. Much of this effort to offer
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audiences the opportunity to engage with these themes falls under the Cine Roma strand of the festival programme. The contents of which Stephen explains come from a range of processes. ‘We seek out the best of international film by attending other festivals and are fortunate to gain access to a range of new work made available to us by its makers through links on internet platforms like Vimeo. “That’s one side of it. Then we also both approach and are approached by community-based groups like Addiction NI, Healing Through Remembering and Creative Connections to name but a few
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to explore collaborations. Cine Roma will live on beyond the festival as the collective title for the rolling community outreach programme Belfast Film Festival will be running throughout the coming year. We’ll talk to anyone with ideas about how to creatively explore a socio-political issue through film,” adds Stephen. • The festival runs from March 27 to April 5. Full details of the programme and news of the organisation’s year round schedule of events can be found at belfastbilmfestival.org
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Many children at risk warns NSPCC in alarming report
Charity estimates that just one in nine of children and young people who are at risk are receiving support Children's social services are so stretched that they are struggling to do more than merely respond to emergencies, a report says. The NSPCC report suggests many councils are raising the threshold at which they intervene to protect children, because of rising demand. The charity estimates that just one in nine of children and young people who are at risk are receiving support. The government said it was improving child protection by cutting red tape. The report, entitled How Safe Are Our Children 2014, says demand for support and intervention has been growing as more families are suffering financially, and more people are willing to identify abuse and demand action in the wake of the
Jimmy Savile scandal. It is based on a number of different research projects by the NSPCC over the past year. It says some of the early intervention services which might support families to stay on track and prevent problems escalating - such as children's centres or domestic violence services - have been cut back. This will store up even more costs and problems for later, it adds. “Without this vital prevention work, children's social services are less and less able to cope with demand and more children are suffering,” the report says. The report also highlights the growth of new and emerging issues such as online abuse, teenage depression and self-harm.
NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: “With record reporting of child abuse, hard-pressed children's social service departments have little choice but to raise the threshold of where they act. “This is leaving large numbers of children with no statutory support. Acting alone, children's social services struggle to be more than an emergency service, getting involved when pain and suffering for children is already entrenched or risk is very high. “Whilst poverty does not cause child abuse or neglect, it can put additional strain on families that are already struggling and tip them over the edge.” The NSPCC says it wants to see greater investment in services and more support for children.
Delivering a range of mental health and wellbeing services Together For You is an innovative project, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, aimed at delivering mental health and wellbeing services to a range of people across Northern Ireland. This is the first time nine leading mental health charities
have come together to help young and old, men and women, minority groups (BME and LGB&T) and marginalised groups (Prisoners, Young people and NEETS). All the services under Together For You are free, and can be accessed all in one place, for
any one of the nine organisations, through the new Together For You website (www.togetherforyou.org.uk). For further information on the range of services on offer, visit www.togetherforyou.org.uk or call 028 9032 9150.
Practical advice and a sensitive personal approach. We pride ourselves on our unrivalled commitment to clients’ needs.
Edwards & Co. solicitors advises charities and the voluntary sector in Northern Ireland on a wide range of legal issues including charity creation, charitable status and constitutional matters, trading and commercial arrangements, employment law, finance, fundraising and property law, as well as dealing with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Our team offers a full range of legal services including mediation, wills,criminal law, clinical negligence and personal injury claims, as well as family/matrimonial work.
Contact Jenny and Teresa: Edwards & Co. Solicitors, 28 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2LA. Tel: (028) 9032 1863 Email: info@edwardsandcompany.co.uk Web: edwardsandcompany.co.uk
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It’s time to get on your bike for the Giro d’Italia With the Giro d’Italia just six weeks away and the clocks wheeling forward an hour on Sunday 30 March, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is encouraging everyone to get on their bikes in the brighter evenings. Mary Black, Assistant Director for Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement at the PHA, said: “The stretch in the evenings means we have more time to get involved in physical activity, whether it’s going for a walk with the dog, kicking a ball in the park or getting out on the bike. “Cycling in particular is one of the best forms of exercise as it is something that almost anyone of any age can do. Being a low-impact exercise it’s easier on your joints than some other exercises and you can also build it in to your daily routine, for example, using it as a form of transport to and from work. “Many employers offer ‘Cycle to Work’ schemes which can reduce the cost of buying a bike and equipment, so even if you haven’t cycled for years, you might be able to get back on two wheels for less than you think. A second-hand bike is also a great option to keep down costs.” The benefits of regular physical activity are wide-ranging, and not only can
Cycling classic to get under way in Belfast on May 9 it reduce the risk of developing illness such as heart disease and many cancers, but it can also have a positive impact on your mental health by reducing anxiety. The Giro d’Italia’s ‘Grande Partenza’, or ‘Big Start’, gets one of the world’s
premier cycle races under way on Friday, May 9 in Belfast and will feature three stages in three days. Ms Black added: “The Giro d’Italia will be a great spectacle of elite sporting excellence.”
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Students from University of Ulster and QUB at a celebration in CafĂŠ Vaudeville, Belfast, to mark the end of Student Volunteers' Week 2014. The event, organised by Volunteer Now, recognised students from across Northern Ireland who have been involved in volunteering activities for a range of organisations
New research reveals link between suicidal behaviour and the Troubles The first direct link between suicidal behaviour and conflict-related trauma in Northern Ireland has been established by University of Ulster (UU) research. Those affected may also be more likely to take their own lives at the first attempt, Professor Siobhan O'Neill said.  She said: "This new research is hugely significant because it demonstrates a new link between conflict and thinking about suicide. "These UU findings are important and valuable as they can now help to shape and enhance the support available to vulnerable people, ensure healthcare providers are aware of new risk patterns, can recognise behaviour patterns and identify those at highest risk." Trauma inflicted during the Troubles continues to be experienced by successive generations that now live in more peaceful times, separate research published by the WAVE Trauma Centre has highlighted. Professor O'Neill said: "This is the first time evidence clearly demonstrating a trend of suicidal behaviour in people who have suffered, or witnessed, a traumatic, conflict-related event has been found. "The research also identifies lower levels of suicide attempts in this group, suggesting more worryingly that this group may be
Trauma inflicted during the conflict continues to be experienced more likely to actually take their own life on the first attempt." According to WAVE, the largest victims' group helping those injured or bereaved by the 30-year conflict, estimates of numbers injured range from 8,383 to 100,000. A 2012 report for the charity noted deteriorating health and increased dependency
due to the combination of ageing and limitations caused by injuries, some severe and traumatic and having long-term effects on all aspects of their lives. They included blast and gunshot damage, loss of limbs, and loss of hearing and vision. Some suffered embedded shrapnel injuries, which continue to cause pain and distress.
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A city smiles to the beat of St Patrick’s Day . . .
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he recent Belfast's St Patrick's Day parade was described as the biggest in years by organisers. Thousands of people were in the city centre for the parade and a free concert. The parade included floats, performers and music. Among the floats was a Back to The Future flying DeLorean, and a Doctor Who Tardis. The Beat Carnival was praised by onlookers for the spectacular, high-energy carnival parade, themed: St Patrick – To The Future. • More pictures from pages 14 to 19
Two young girls enjoying the fun parade
Images: Da
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avid Boyd, david@beatcarnival.com
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Lots of colour on display at parade
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Futuristic fun on the streets of Belfast
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emma toner colin neighbourhood partnership
A giant puppet takes part in St Patrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day parade in Belfast
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A host of performers entertain the public during the parade in Belfast
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The Big Picture Donegal surfer Easkey Britton, right, is just one of the many people who have lent their support to a new campaign by Oxfam Ireland called Female Heroes which encourages people throughout Ireland, north and south, to celebrate the inspirational women in their lives. For more information, see www.oxfamheroes.org If you would like your community/ voluntary organisation to be selected for The Big Picture in the next issue of VIEW, send images, marked â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Big Picture entryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to editorial@viewdigital.org
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UTV/U105 presenters get behind Digital Assist, a new campaign designed to help people in local communities to make better use of the internet and avail of online services. A full week of activity is planned in local libraries from March 31 to April 4. Pictured are Rose Neill and Mark Mallet, UTV; Hilary Hanberry, Business in the Community Clare Curry, Libraries NI along with Julian Simmons, UTV and Carolyn Stewart, U105. The campaign is supported by UTV, u.tv and U105
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