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Introduction:
Political Compassion?
Derek Poole
Silly
Games with Flags
Alwyn Thomson
From
the Director
David Porter
Church
and Society
Lesley Carroll
Education
Mike Wardlow
Social
Development
Doug Garrett
Environment
Tom Clarke
Wilson
on Suffering
Alan Wilson
Finance
and Personnel
Stephen Roper
Enterprise,
Trade and Investment
Lawson McDonald
Faith
and Practice - Esmond Birnie
Megan Halteman
Higher
and Further Education
John Gillespie
Health
and Social Services
Brian Coulter
Agriculture
Jack Patterson
Culture,
Arts and Leisure
David Boyd
The
Essential IVP Reference Collection
Embodying
Forgiveness
ECONI Conference
Not
of This World?
New Book
DEPARTMENT
OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (DSD)
I imagine that for you, as for me, the title ‘Social Development’ conjures
up a mixture of ideas not all of which sit comfortably together in our
ordered Christian minds. For too long the average Northern Ireland Christian
has led at least two separate lives: working life and Sunday life, with
perhaps a leisure life and maybe also a conscience-salving charitable
life. By this way of thinking we separate the soft centred social responsibility
from the hardnosed commercial world.
The industrial revolution brought urban growth on an unprecedented scale. Subsequent industrial decline had a profound effect on the urban landscape and on the community dependant on the now defunct jobs. Sites lying empty or simply used for low value purposes like surface car parks followed all too often from the closure of industrial premises. Planning for urban renewal was something that predated DSD with the Belfast Regeneration Office and Making Belfast Work alongside agencies such as the Housing Executive and Laganside Corporation in the 1980s and 1990s beginning to address the areas of housing need and urban development. A holistic approach to redressing social imbalance was being taken in a fragmented way, if this is not a contradiction in terms. With the formation of the local Assembly and creation of DSD the term ‘inclusive’, currently high up in any fund seeker's vocabulary list, could be applied to the process of change. Now social development and commercial development sat side by side, neither claiming pre-eminence, both recognising that benefit existed in partnership. Social input without commercial viability could not be sustainable, whilst commercial development without community ownership was a route to conflict. Is it not the biblical pattern - build on a solid and lasting foundation and recognise partnership with different roles for all (all parts of one body)? In the 1990’s we had days of European plenty when the UK government as second largest net contributor to the EU was seeking to draw back money for projects within its boundaries and Northern Ireland provided the answer to its prayers. European money was poured into social projects, which could not always demonstrate return for investment, while money put into capital projects could show bricks and mortar on the ground but not always need for subvention or a channelling toward most needy areas. So it was that social and physical renewal began to be addressed hand in hand. Lessons from social and physical development partnerships can be applied directly to the church setting. All too often the Christian church is to be found in the middle class areas, as a club for the well heeled. In these areas money can be found for church buildings, physical development, a so-called ‘yardstick of success’, but often without true social or community impact. Likewise other churches may be involved in social projects that are worthy but may not make a so-called ‘Kingdom difference’. Involving church funders with social activists provides the setting in which real lasting impact can take place. Urban Decline
Urban decline has left the community disenfranchised, no longer involved in the sites where employment was previously focused. In Northern Ireland, community tension along political and religious lines means often-differing aspirations for future development site use exist. It is vital that each section of the community has a valued contribution to make in determining the future, although also essential that no one section control issues. To this end it is important to ensure that the decision is not affected by political cycles as politicians are, unsurprisingly, influenced by the date of the next election and hence prone to short-term thinking. Strategic planning is key to delivery, planning which listens to all and then sets a firm course. The new umbrella department, DSD, brings together, through agencies and core civil service structures, all of the elements necessary to make sustainable urban renewal happen. The solutions to the community tensions that existed in Northern Ireland tended in the past to recommend separate living. So called ‘Peace Walls’ kept loyalist and republican, nationalist and unionist apart. This thinking was in many ways a continuation of the industrialised thinking that separated living and working sectors of the urban landscape. To deal with housing needs a new housing estate would be created without thought as to how this would relate to working and shopping needs. The DSD approach now considers the implications of new development: gone are the days of divided cities; there is no reason why shopping, working and living can’t take place in the same area. Heavy industry does require a separate setting, but today with improved transportation this really is unlikely to be in a city centre setting. The business districts, open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, created sterile unused environments outside of these times. Today in the areas undergoing urban renewal people live above the shops and offices in areas such as Clarendon Dock. This integrated living idea brings me back full cycle to the need for Christians to have an active faith that is relevant at work, in leisure and in their place of residence. The concept of comprehensive and inclusive urban renewal evident in the new DSD is one that, although needing time to become an established way of thinking, is a step in the right direction. The Christian church likewise needs to become more inclusive in its approach to renewal, faith and works. A concept acknowledged in the head must be transferred to the hands, feet and wallet.
Doug Garrett is Marketing Director of Laganside Corporation and an elder in Whitehead Baptist Church.
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