‘INSIDER? OUTSIDER? Peace Building Youth Project, 2011

Gwen Stevenson delivered this peace building initiative for Youth Action Northern Ireland with young people aged 13-25 in five border communities of South Tyrone And Monaghan including Caledon, Galbally, Fivemiletown, Blackwater, Carrickroe, Augher.  The aim of the program was to build positive relationships with young people within and between communities from different traditions.

This project explored the relationship between place and identity, considering the impacts on young people of living in rural communities with strong political identities and cultures. In particular, it explored how identity is linked to place on three levels – local, community and ‘national’ – each of which serves to create feelings of inclusion or exclusion, thus reinforcing notions of ‘insiders’ and outsiders’. This project explored how divisions, rooted in historical constructions of space, are passed down, both subtly and overtly, to young people.

Working individually and in groups, young people were asked to consider:

Ways in which I am an insider in my local community?

Ways in which I am an outsider in my local community?

The project ran over an eight- week period in July and August 2011 at summer scheme venues in the Monaghan/South Tyrone border region. One two-hour workshop was held at each of the participating communities. The end product of this project was a DVD that captured the work produced over the period of the project. This DVD was shown at a launch event at the end of August 2011 that brought all the communities that participated in the project together.