## **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** **Trustees Annual Report For the year ended 31 March 2024** ## **1. The Purpose of the Charity** The Purpose of Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum is to: “Work for the social, economic and physical regeneration of the Cliftonville community and to create the conditions for the removal of the physical and mental barriers that divide us”. We have three key strategic outcomes which are: **----- Start of picture text -----**
Our Outcomes
Peace
Our Strategy works to Regeneration Building and
achieve three outcomes: 1. Our people Good
Regeneration; 2. Peace have Relations
Building and Good decent Our
Relations; and 3. Children jobs and community
and Young People. a good is peaceful,
Regeneration
standard shared and
Our people
Outcomes are the quality of of living have diverse
life conditions we want for
decent
the children, adults and
jobs and
families who live in our
a good
community. These outcomes
standard
do not stand alone — they
of living
are all inter-connected. All
Children
our work programmes must
and Young
contribute to one or more of
People
our outcomes and ideally Our children and
they contribute to all three
young people have the best
outcomes.
start in life
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Strategic Theme Outcome** |**Regeneration**|Our people have decent jobs and wages and a
good standard of living| |---|---| |**Peace Building and Good**
**Relations**|Our community is peaceful, shared and diverse| |**Children and Young People**|Our children and young people have the best start
in life| ## **2. The Financial year the report relates to** This Trustees Report relates to the financial year commencing on 1[st] April 2023 and ending on 31[st] March 2024. ## **3. Principle Address of the Charity** 185 Cliftonpark Avenue, Belfast BT14 6DT **2** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 ## **4. Information on governance** Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum is a company limited by guarantee with a Memorandum and Articles of Association which was adopted on 13[th] November 2002. ## **5. Trustee Details** The Trustees of the Charity who have served within the period of this report are: Mr Paul Little Mr Daniel Lavery Ms Kathleen Quinn Mr Neil Montgomery Ms Delores Quinn Ms Michelle Di Lucia Ms Kerry Haddock Ms Jennifer Robinson Ms Elizabeth Sheppard ## **6. Trustee Appointment Information** The following trustees were appointed during the current year: Ms Kerry Haddock, appointed 4[th] December 2023 Ms Jennifer Roninson, appointed 4[th] December 2023 Elizabeth Sheppard, appointed on 5[th] December 2023 Ms Michelle Di Lucia, appointed 15[th] January 2024 The following resigned during the current year: Elizabeth Sheppard resigned on 15[th] January 2024 ## **7. Public Benefit Compliance** Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum in setting our objectives and planning our activities for the year the Trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission NI’s guidance on public benefit to ensure that the activities have helped to achieve the charity’s purposes and provide a benefit to the beneficiaries. ## **8. Activities and Achievements** ## **8.1 Context** The Cliftonville community is located in the Waterworks ward which is according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) is the No.1 most deprived ward in the North. This data is based on NISRA data from 2017, however, since then poverty levels have got worse. Since this data was released were have been hot by Covid-19 and then the Cost of Living Crisis. In terms of the claimant count – a proxy for the number of people out of work – the figures for the Waterworks ward have risen by 44%. **3** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 Homelessness is a major problem in this area. There is also a lack of good quality housing. Homelessness affects families but also individuals and young people who have little chance of securing accommodation. We have 3 and even 4 generations of one family living in the same house. It is a world apart from the leafy semis with a large garden. The area is also home to an increasing number of flats, apartments and low quality accommodation. The area has a high number of old 3 story properties. These are easily turned into flats and HMOs (Housing in Multiple Occupation). There is a high number of low quality private landlord accommodation. There are notable exceptions. Some private landlords are proactive in improving their properties. However, not all low quality accommodation is in the private sector. An increasing number of low quality housing is owned by social landlords. Local residents who complain about poor quality social housing are increasingly being told: “What do you expect, its social housing”. Poor quality and over crowded housing is a major contributor to low education attainment, stress, poor mental health and securing decent employment opportunities. Millions of pounds is spend every year in housing benefit in the Cliftonville area. Very little of that finds it way back to support either the redevelopment of the properties or regeneration of the local area. Economically, there are no large employers in the area and there has been no investment in any form of economic development in the area for decades. The current economic model does not work for communities such as the Cliftonville. An alternative economic model which has emerged is called Community Wealth Building. Community Wealth Building aims to make the economy work for the people not make people work for the economy. Community Wealth Building stops wealth leaving deprived areas, supports the local economy and places control and benefits in the hands of local people. The development of the Cliftonville Community Enterprise (below) will contribute to the building of community wealth. The last 12 month period has been a particularly challenging one for developing good relations in North Belfast. The immediate period from April 2023 was very difficult as no budget had been agreed at Stormont and none of our youth programmes were able to operate. Detached and sessional youth work staff were placed on hold while we waited for the outcome of the budget decisions. This is in the context of the Cost of Living crisis and some very experienced youth workers decided that they could no longer continue with the uncertainty of sessional paid youth work and took more stable jobs elsewhere. The national minimum wage also rose and this meant we needed to increase the hourly rate for our detached and sessional youth workers against a back drop of a budget cuts. Despite a number of low level incidents the summer months of 2023 passed by without any major incidents. In September 2023 an incident at a fun fayre close to Lidl’s shopping centre at Hillview Road led to several nights of tension, fighting and rioting. Although the incidents were resolved locally the young people were displaced to nearby Cliftonpark Avenue interface and Girdwood where the conflict continued. PSNI used ‘Op Squallery’, a special PSNI operation in the area. Incidents continued through to the end of October. December 2023 was quiet; however, low level tension and conflict re-appeared again after the Christmas break. **4** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 Individuals, homes and cars were attacked. Tensions continued into February 2024 when groups of young people travelled on foot into nearby loyalist areas, posted photos of themselves on social media and afterwards cars and homes on Agnes Street and Cliftonpark Avenue were attacked. In late February 2024 it was claimed that up to 80-100 young people were at the interface some attacking homes. From September 2023-March 2024 there have been 76 nights of tension, arranged fights and conflict at Girdwood/Cliftonpark Avenue. This has involved 103 incidents involving assaults, criminal damage and anti-social behaviour. While not all these incidents have been motivated by sectarian hate crime some of these incidents are. One incident included an attack on the home of a local community worker. Later the same worker was physically attacked and injured after being hit with a concrete block. According to one PSNI officer: “As a result of these incidents (at Cliftonpark Avenue), police officers have spent considerable periods of time at the interface. This has often taken the form of static police patrols waiting at the interface to prevent youths attending or returning to the location for further violence. “Several youths have been arrested and a larger number have received a recorded criminal justice disposal as a result of criminal behaviour. This interface has easily been the most active and troublesome in north Belfast in this period. The next most active, Carlisle Circus / Clifton Street, is directly linked to this interface as the youths’ movement is often tracked between the two – one interface goes quiet as both groups of youths move to the other”. The PSNI have identified 44 young people who are involved in anti-social behaviour, criminal damage and physical assaults at this and other interfaces in North Belfast. They are currently working with social services, Youth Justice Agency, the Housing Executive, housing associations, local schools and youth and community organisations to address these issues. Despite these events there continues to be a high level of engagement of young people at Girdwood, Cliftonpark Avenue and across the area. Some of the young people involved in tension and conflict at the interface are from the local and surrounding areas (Cliftonville, New Lodge, Shankill, Ardoyne). However, many young people are travelling from Glengormley, parts of West Belfast and even North Down. The problem is that a transient group of disengaged youth seem to be main cause of issues. A way needs to be found to engage these young people. It is likely that many of these young people face underlying issues. Our good relations work does not take place in a vacuum. It takes place on tough terrain where it is difficult to sustain. It takes place in the context of physical dereliction and acute poverty and disadvantage. Physically the area around Girdwood and Cliftonpark Avenue is characterised by a lack of development with derelict and vacant land on each side the interface. In the evenings this becomes a playground for recreational activity which creates tension, anti-social behaviour and sometimes rioting. The area is also characterised by high levels of poverty, deprivation, mental health, lack of education attainment, and lack of positive roles models for our young people. The **5** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 hopelessness amongst young people has increased. We need long term regeneration work which can address these issues and provide a more fertile ground for our good relations work. **----- Start of picture text -----**
Adverse
Childhood
Experiences
**----- End of picture text -----**
We are working with young people who have Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). According to a Queen’s University report on mental health in NI (October, 2020): “There was a clear association with deprivation, with young people in the least deprived areas more likely to have experienced no ACEs compared to those in the most deprived (59.9% vs 36.0%)”. This means that children, young people and their families are living in what health professionals have referred to as “Chronically Unsafe Community Environments”. These issues take place in a context where armed gangs remain active and organised crime gangs/drug gangs target and exploit disadvantaged communities. ## **8.2 Regeneration Activities** ## **Cliftonville Enterprise Centre** In January 2024 we received word that we had secured funding £1.45 million to build the Cliftonville Community Enterprise to act as a catalyst for the regeneration of this area. The funding from Belfast City Council’s Neighbourhood Regeneration Fund will see the building of a 8,000 square feet social enterprise on Cliftonpark Avenue with a 2-story childcare facility and 8 workspace units. This Centre aims to provide employment and training opportunities for local people and to support them into employment and business. This will help to create a pathway for residents into employment through child care jobs and through a process of learning, making, and selling. Cliftonville Community Forum has worked to deliver this project for a number of years. **6** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 **Architect’s design of the Cliftonville Community Enterprise** Along with our community development work, peace building work and youth work we always knew that this area needed more support to help people into training and employment. We have always provided training to increase people’s skills and have helped many people secure employment. This new centre will give us a purpose-built facility where we can do this on a larger scale. When the new centre is up and running it will create 30 jobs on the site as well as other jobs through training. We will engage with three groups of people in the local community: i) long term unemployed males, ii) women living in poverty and iii) young people from disadvantaged families. We opened a Pop-up café in Girdwood in December 2023. Called New Ground Coffee – the name came from the young people trained as baristas. It was a play on cross community work and coffee. The pop-up cafe aimed at empowering our local youth by providing them with valuable skills and a pathway into the world of work. The young faces behind the counter have undergone a comprehensive training program covering enterprise, barista skills, first aid, food hygiene, manual handling, health and safety, and customer care. The concept driving New Ground coffee is simple but profound — to prepare local youth for the challenges of the workforce by providing them with real-world experience in a customer-focused environment. The goal is to equip them not only with the skills required to make the perfect cup of coffee but also with transferable skills that will serve them well in any professional endeavour they choose to pursue. The pop-up café was officially launched on 29[th] February by Belfast Lord Mayor, Ryan Murphy, with other government departments and funders in attendance – The Executive Office, Department for Communities, NI Water, Belfast City Council, International Fund for Ireland and PSNI. **7** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 ## **Community Organising project** The Community Organising project works with residents to address the issues they identify and organise them into community groups to ensure that issues get addressed. A wide range of issues are tackled including: housing, anti-social behaviour, illegal dumping, rat infestation, landlord issues, the #BusFreeBrookvale campaign and the Save Our Post Office campaign. The project produces and distributes a community newsletter. Since October 2020 we have produced 10 editions and distributed 1,500 free copies of each edition to local homes. The Community Organising project works with 4 community groups in the area: - Waterworks Residents Association - Manor Street Residents Action Group - Brucevale Residents - Cliftonpark Avenue Residents The following training has been completed by the project: - Naloxone Training - Introduction to ADHD - ADHD Training OCN L2 - Autism Awareness Training - Child Exploitation Training - ILM Award Training Leadership and Management - Debt Management Training Multi-agency work is a crucial part of the role and attending fortnightly meetings with external agencies is a great way to raise issues in the area and work collaboratively with these agencies to try and tackle the issues. Since April 2023 to March 2024 there has been: - 18 multi agency meetings with agencies such as Community Restorative Justice, PSNI, Belfast City Council, Housing Executive, Housing Associations and politicians. - 3 meeting have taken place with the Save Our Post Office Campaign - 21 meetings have taken place with local councillors Tomás O’Neill, Ryan Murphy, Paul McCusker and Mal O’Hara as well as meeting with local residents groups to tackle day to day issues in the area including lack of services and investment Due to the cost of living crisis and various other social factors, the challenges the area is facing grows daily. Since the beginning of 2023 we have a significant rise in anti-social behaviour and housing issues. ## **Neighbourhood Renewal** Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum is active in delivering the government’s neighbourhood renewal strategy. This involves working at a number of levels: **8** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 - Community level in delivering community-based regeneration projects in the Cliftonville area. - Working as a member of the Crumlin Ardoyne Neighbourhood Partnership. **9** Meetings and Working Groups of the Crumlin Ardoyne Neighbourhood Partnership in 2023/24. - Working as a member of the North Belfast Neighbourhood Renewal Partnerships. This is now emerging as the new North Belfast Community Partnership. **6** Meetings of the North Belfast Community Partnership and **2** Community conference events have been held in 2023-24. **2** Political breakfasts for North Belfast political representatives have also been organised by the North Belfast Community partnership with all the political parties in North Belfast. - Working as a member of the Neighbourhood Renewal Forum – made up of 36 Neighbourhood Renewal Partnerships across the North of Ireland. **9** Meetings of the 36 Neighbourhood Renewal partnerships - Working as a member of the Department of Communities Strategic Planning Group reviewing the People and Place/Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy. **5** Planning meetings of the People & Place Review organised by the Department for Communities ## **8.3 Peace Building and Good Relations Activities** ## **Girdwood Youth Space Project** **----- Start of picture text -----**
Girdwood Youth Space Project [T:BUC Theme:] Shared Community [ Our ]
Performance Measures — April 2023-March 2024
How much did we do? How well did we do it?
Young people (Protestant, Unionist,
participated in Shared 33% PUL Loyalist)
3,012 Youth Drop-in
(Catholic, Nationalist,
Young people engaged 63% CNR Republican)
through Shared
615 Detached Youth Workers 100% 99% 100% Girdwood Youth
Young people of participants come of participants said
of participants feel
undergoing peace from the top 10% they were treated Space Scorecard
253 building/good relations most deprived communities the programme helped them well during the programme 2023/24
Is anyone better off?
% of participants whose % of participants whose attitude % of participants likely to
knowledgeable of different towards people from a different attend an event in an area
traditions and backgrounds has religious background has associated with another
increased improved community
98% 86% 89%
Increased Improved Likely
**----- End of picture text -----**
We began our Peace Building/Good Relations work in April 2023 in the context no functioning NI Executive and with civil servants not having agreed to a budget to enable community and youth organisations to deliver good relations programmes on the ground. The Cost of Living Crisis meant that costs for transport, refreshments, equipment, staff was increasing by 30-40% while we had no budget. The delay was no just one month but from April to July 2023. In this context the Trustees of Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum took the decision to ‘work at risk’ – provide the essential youth work good relations **9** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 programmes in the hope that government would eventually release a budget. When the budget was eventually released it was cut by 10%! Despite many difficulties the good relations programme for 2023/24 was delivered by our dedicated staff. 2023/24 saw us deliver a range of youth activities, projects, crosscommunity trips/residentials and team building events to ensure that the Girdwood Youth Space is a safe, shared space for all local young people. More than 3,000 local people have participated in good relations activities organised during the year through youth and community events. - 98% of participants said that their knowledge of different traditions and backgrounds increased - 86% of participants said their attitude towards people from a different religious background improved - 89% of participants said they are likely to attend an event in an area associated with another community Our Girdwood Youth Space project works across the Cliftonville, Lower Shankill and Lower Oldpark areas and delivers youth programmes in the Girdwood Community Hub and the Girdwood Youth Space. We have made contact with 615 young people in detached (street) outreach work. 3,012 young people have participated in shared youth drop-ins. ## **Imagine Peace Barriers Project** **Concept plan for a soft play area to replace a section of the peace wall at Cliftonpark Avenue** The Imagine Peace Barriers Project is a cross community partnership with Lower Oldpark Community Association. In January 2024 we began a consultation process with the loca community on both sides of the interface to find out their views on concept plans to build a Shared Space Project which will remove part of the interface on Cliftonpark Avenue. **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 The consultation exercise aimed at finding out what local residents, political representatives and government agencies working in the area think about the concept plans. The concept designs include a soft play area for children and a cafe area. It will have multi-purpose rooms, a climbing zone and retail units. There will also be special Changing Places toilets for children with special requirements. There are two basic concepts and the plan would effectively replace a section of the interface wall which runs from Cliftonpark Avenue up towards Manor Street. Members of the project team went door to door explaining the project, we also held a number of afternoon and evening meetings to allow local residents to express their views. A meeting with also held with political representatives from across North Belfast including the MP, MLAs and local councillors. Reflecting the ongoing conflict at Girdwood and the interface local residents expressed fears of the anti-social behaviour and fighting at the interface. In response the project went back out door-to-door providing local residents with fridge magnets with the contacts to report incidents to the PSNI and the local community. The cross community project is also working with a cross community women’s group and a men’s group around interface issues. ## **8.3 Children and Young People Activities** ## **Let Youth Lead project** The delay in receiving The Executive Office funding had a direct resulted in a delay in our services being delivered. The sessions were on hold for the month of April and so we were unable to begin delivering our programmes until June 2023. **----- Start of picture text -----**
Together We Are Stronger T:BUC Theme: Children and Young People Our
Performance Measures — April 2023-March 2024
How much did we do? How well did we do it?
(Protestant, Unionist,
Young people engaged by detached workers 18% PUL Loyalist)
1,665
(Catholic, Nationalist,
Young people attending 76% CNR Republican)
good relations drop-ins
2,474
6% Other
People attend good
relations Christmas Street Detached Good Relations Drop-in
220 event organised by young people 65% Male | 35% Female 40% Male | 60% Female Let Youth Lead
Scorecard
Is anyone better off? 2023/24
% of participants who are more % of people who have improved % of participants likely to
favourable towards people from knowledge about cultural attend an event in an area
a different religious background traditions and backgrounds associated with another
community
80% 74% 84%
More Improved More Likely
favourable
**----- End of picture text -----**
This delay causes a disruption in the consistency of working with young people on a regular basis. The inability to continue a relationship with young people causes issues as **11** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 young people disengage from the project or move on to alternative services. Some of the young people who disengaged during this period have still not returned to our provision – 10 months later. This also had an impact on the lack of sessional workers throughout the month of April/May 2023 also. The inability to offer paid work has resulted in experienced staff having to find alternative employment in the hospitality industry where work is guaranteed. The loss of staff results in a loss of specialised knowledge of our communities, the young people within it, links to their families as well as the barriers they face. Loosing experienced staff that have been with the project since being participants has had a great impact. These staff have a unique understanding of what it is like to be a participant, the barriers young people face and an understanding of the communities we work in. We continue to bring in youth leaders and provide them with mentoring, training and hands on experience, but we find staff who have grown within the projects methodology to be irreplaceable to an extent. As a sector, we need to do more to ensure these staff have job security and show that the skills and experience they bring are valued. Our youth development worker (funded elsewhere), who coordinates this programme, was off on maternity leave and has only returned 6 months into the programme. Recruitment was an issue as it was a maternity post and the lack of job security resulted in a small intake of applicants, many of which lacked the qualifications stated in the job description. This had a deep impact on the project during the first quarter without a key person to seek alternative funding to keep the project running again has also attributed to the delivery of the programme. Our youth development worker (funded elsewhere), who coordinates this programme, was off on maternity leave and has only returned 6 months into the programme. Recruitment was an issue as it was a maternity post and the lack of job security resulted in a small intake of applicants, many of which lacked the qualifications stated in the job description. This had a deep impact on the project during the first quarter without a key person to seek alternative funding to keep the project running again has also attributed to the delivery of the programme. Once sessions were reintroduced, our detached workers were back on the streets. Throughout the Summer the area was quiet in regards to tensions at the interfaces and organised fights. Summer came and went through the contentious dates which we usually anticipate when issues may arise. However, over the month of September, tensions around the Girdwood interface begun to rise. We noted a rise in young people traveling to the area, many not from the local community, to cause anti-social behaviour and attend arranged fights. Police presence increased at the interface as a result. Also the gates to Girdwood Community Hub were locked in the evenings at 8pm causing a physical barrier between young people. Many young people we engage in our programmes felt they were being shut out and unwelcome, which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve by engaging young people on our programmes. **12** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 **The Let Youth Lead Cycle of Engagement model** As a result, youth workers began to walk groups through the interface, however young people families were unhappy that the gate between Girdwood Community Hub and Lower Oldpark entrance was not accessible. They felt unsafe walking through what they referred to as ‘the Catholic entrance’. A reoccurring feeling we have been trying to dispel is young people feeling like they are treated differently due to which side of the community they live on. These conversations often lead to other topics which they feel a similar way for, for example, housing and education which young people have expressed a difference depending on what religious community you come from or area you live. Our model of engagement continues to shape our approach to engage in young people. Detached and Outreach work is the initial grassroots stages of engaging with young people on the streets and in an environment where they are comfortable. This is where our street-based youth work staff would come into contact with most young people in particular those who are hanging around interfaces or parks or streets. Detached youth work is an asset to both our youth project and the local community. The advantage of engaging young people in the local area, identifying barriers to engagement, needs of the young people as well as building relationships with local residents and other youth providers. However, when there are issues at interfaces, youth workers are often used as a means to ‘police’ young people especially when anti-social behaviour or rioting is taking place. This has an impact on how young people see youth workers and can have a negative effect on our ability to engage. The ability to form a relationship with young people is based on trust, and from this a positive relationship can form which can often lead to engaging them in further opportunities to support their development or helping them realise the negative impact their behaviours can have on the community. **13** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 Through detached the main issues identified are: - Anti-social behaviour - Sectarian behaviour - Organised fights and riots - Sexualised behaviour - Drug/alcohol consumption We found that young females are more likely to engage in centre-based work than young males and have an increased likelihood to engage in risk-taking behaviours. We understand that not all young people have an interest in engaging in structured programmes, however, we do feel it is important that our youth workers are able to consult with them and encourage them to come up with ideas that they would like to see available to them so create a sense of ownership. Our shared drop-ins is a safe space where young people feel they belong. They can look forward to each weekly session and this can have a deep impact on how they see themselves and how they look towards their future. They have access to role models in the form of youth workers, volunteers and their peers which they may not have had at home. We have found that 28% of young people who attend our programmes have a disability, with a majority of young people having or waiting for an assessment for Autism. This has an impact on the levels of young people that can engage due to the needs of the young people that are regular attendees. This can mean staff have additional behaviours to manage as well as ensuring their individual needs are met. As a result of this we had training from Autism NI in order to help make our project more accessible and needsfriendly for the young people in our service and in the wider community. ## **Personal Youth Development Programme (PYDP)** The Personal Youth Development Programme (PYDP) is designed to address the multifaceted challenges faced by disadvantaged young people aged 16-25 who are living in poverty, impacted by drug addictions, left school early or with low education attainment, been in or close to the criminal justice system, suffer from poor mental health or are homeless. The programme aims to foster personal and social development, promote good relations, offer career guidance, and provide opportunities to raise their aspirations. The programme has worked with more than 30 young people in a bespoke programme including good relations training, personal development and employability training. The programme offers a flexible approach, tailored interventions to individual needs including sign posting to other agencies and ongoing support on a 1:1 mentoring basis. 8 young people have secured employed and 14 have gone on to further training. One example of the work of the project is the case study below: ## **Case Study** My name is Erin and I am a single mother to a little boy and girl. With only 11 months between my kids, my sole focus over the last few years has been being a Mum. Up until I joined the Personal Youth Development Programme (PYDP) my kids were my only focus but since joining the group I have learned that I also need to remember my own needs. My babies are my world, but to get the opportunity to join PYDP has enlightened me and also shown me that my needs can also be a priority. **14** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 I am so grateful for this experience, not only to help boost my confidence but it has given me the desire to get back into education and set new goals for our future. I’m now focused on learning to drive, aiming to try and gain more qualifications and maybe try to start a career in politics. Joining PYDP has been an amazing experience so far, meeting beautiful, wonderful and inspiring women, covering a range of topics and activities that have helped us come out of our shells and progress to our full potential. I didn’t know programmes like this existed, I am so thankful for it and to everyone who has been involved in the programme! Making friends along the way has made the experience even more enjoyable than I had initially hoped for. I would highly recommend this opportunity to any young person. There is nothing stopping you from reaching your goals and inspiring others along the way! **Pumpkin Patch:** The young people designed and developed a Cross Community Pumpkin Patch in October 2023. This allowed them to develop and foster many skills including event planning, project management, communication, problem solving, creativity and much more. This event was attended by 250 people from both communities in Lower Oldpark and lower Cliftonville coming together to create memories. ## **9. Acknowledgements** Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum would like to acknowledge the support of our funders and thank them. - The International Fund for Ireland - The Executive Office - Community Relations Council - Department for Communities - Co-operation Ireland - National Lottery Awards for All - BBC Children in Need - Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade – Reconciliation Fund - • Belfast City Council - Housing Executive - NI Education Authority - Community Foundation Ireland - Neighbourly - Northern Ireland Water - Cash for Kids ## **11. Plans for the future** Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum will be focused on the following key priorities in the year ahead: **Cliftonville Enterprise Centre:** The development of the enterprise centre at Cliftonpark Avenue is crucial as a first step to moving the lower Cliftonville area out of poverty. The **15** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612 centre will provide training for local people and support them into the world of work and enterprise. Given that the Waterworks ward is the No.1 most deprived area in the North this is a priority. **Imagine Shared Space Project:** The concept of developing a shared space and removing a part of the peace wall between lower Cliftonville and Lower Oldpark now looks a real possibility. In the year ahead a business plan and architectural designs will be prepared for local community consultation. A project team will also be established to drive the project forward. **Girdwood Youth Space Management proposal:** Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum is working with community groups around the Girdwood site to manage the Girdwood Youth Space. An outline proposal has already been submitted to Belfast City Council. We have established the Girdwood Community Trust as the legal entity and members include ourselves, Lower Shankill Community Association, Lower Oldpark Community Association and New Lodge CEP/TDK Community Group. ## **12. Financial Review** ## **1[st] April 2023-31[st] March 2024** |**1st April 2023-31st March 2024**||| |---|---|---| ||**2024**|**2023**| |Income|£586,713|£628,393| |Expenditure|£590,344|£577,689| |Surplus/Deficit|-(£3,631)|£50,704| |Debts|£0.00|£0.00| |Unrestricted Reserves|£194,916|£196,112| |Restricted Reserves|£84,854|£87,289| |Reserves (Restricted & Unrestricted)|£279,770|£283,401| Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum does have a Reserves Policy which outlines the need for financial reserves to allow the charity to make investments or deal with legal liabilities. One such liability is redundancy payments The Directors have agreed a policy that requires financial reserves be maintained at a level to sustain 6 months’ core activity during a period of unforeseen difficulty. ## **13. Deficit Funds** The Charity has no deficit at the end of this financial year. ## **14. Sign off** This Trustees Report was approved by the Board of Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum on Monday 18[th] November 2024 and is signed by: _________________________________ Paul Little, Chairperson, Board of Trustees **16** **Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum** | Charity No. NIC100274 Company Registration No. NI037612