During the 25 th Anniversary of the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement, Community Dialogue and partners
formed a Peace Summit Coalition. Its purpose was to take stock of the unfinished business of peace and
reconciliation in Northern Ireland and through civic consultation make recommendations for a way forward
to an agreed inclusive future.

The Peace Summit provided an opportunity for over 700 diverse peacebuilders, local communities and
young people from across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to consider both the progress that
has been made and what remains to be done, how we achieve this, and who is responsible for
implementing the next steps.

The result was a 12-Point Call To Action which forms the basis of a draft Peace Plan that we are
encouraging government to consider as part of the next Programme for Government.

12-Point Call to Action

1. Re-establish Political Institutions and Address Deficits
2. Ensure Positive Constructive Leadership
3. Formulate an Inclusive Peace Plan
4. Adapt the Agreement
5. Tackle Paramilitarism
6. Good Relations Proofing and Address Segregation
7. Integrate Education
8. Enhance Youth Participation
9. Create a Vehicle for Civic Engagement
10. Invest in Peacebuilding
11. Enhance Societal Well-Being
12. Civic Education on the Past for the Future

Next Steps

As part of this project’s next phase we are encouraging as many people as possible to engage in dialogue
with us on the Call to Action and inclusive Peace Plan. We want you to deepen and amend these
recommendations and agree any additional actions that we can take together in order to secure a peaceful
future that is shared, equitable and sustainable.

“We firmly dedicate ourselves to the achievement of reconciliation, tolerance and mutual trust and to the
protection and vindication of the human rights of all.” Declaration of Support from the Belfast/Good
Friday Agreement

The Peace Summit Coalition

Community Dialogue, The John & Pat Hume Foundation, Integrated Education Fund
Glencree, Holywell Trust, Ulster University, Youth Action Northern Ireland

“the absence of a unifying vision in post-conflict societies is the single greatest obstacle to achieving lasting peace”.
John Paul Lederach

Background to the Programme:

Despite the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, our communities remain polarised, maintaining conflicting visions that are preventing progress towards a future where we all feel that we belong equally, share the same opportunities and participate fully.

Our society is trapped in a sectarian system of voting that prioritises keeping the other side out above our shared needs and politics here often seems compelled to respond to issues through an Orange or Green lens. Meanwhile, we are facing unprecedented threats to our way of life including Covid-19 and unfolding climate change that require unprecedented collective actions.

We know, from our extensive community engagement experience, that people who get the chance to understand each other’s positions through dialogue are good at resolving differences and agreeing shared solutions. They have the capacity to reach agreement on a vision for our collective future and on the practical steps to achieve it. Our extensive society-wide consultation tells us that our citizens are hungry for this opportunity.

Purpose of the Programme:

“Northern Ireland is full of such people and their experience of exclusion is reinforced by our unresolved legacy of conflict, and by political systems that alienate them. This project provides them with the opportunity to empower themselves, to become socially engaged, to build a collective vision, and to challenge the attitudes and systems inhibiting their participation.”
David Holloway, Director, Community Dialogue

Our Northern Ireland-wide programme offers a range of facilitated Consensus-Building Dialogues in conjunction with Capacity-Building Political Education and Participative Democracy Workshops, supported by a Coalition-building Platform and focused Advocacy engagement. This Project gives participants the opportunity to empower themselves, to become socially engaged, to build a collective vision, to be heard, and to challenge the attitudes structures and systems inhibiting their participation.

The programme is designed to nurture a relationship between dialogue practice and political education, to better enable participants to identify how it looks and feels to have their voices heard. Supporting the development of both emotional and political literacy.

The project contains four tiers, all of which will commence simultaneously over the next 18 months. Events and workshops will take place online and eventually face-to-face as Covid restrictions lift. The tiers include:

Tier 1: Consensus-Building Dialogues – facilitated discussions and large scale events covering a range of topics effecting NI, building consensus together to tackle these issues.

Tier 2: ‘Participative Democracy’ Workshops – building the capacity of the grassroots to make their voices heard and exploring alternative mechanisms for decision-making

Tier 3: Cross-Sectoral Coalition – this project aims to establish a synergistic network of stakeholders to host 24 advocacy engagements, utilising participant-derived outcomes to support further projects that address the needs of those shut out of politics.

Tier 4: Learning & Promotion – findings, action plans and project feedback will fuel research, learning materials and inspire models of good practice to benefit future generations and better inform public policy.

Through this process, we will evolve an empowered, united, civic voice and participative movement, working to transform a shared vision for the future into reality, working to ensure that the experiences of being voiceless or of not belonging in this place, are something future generations will only ever read about in our history books.

Our team includes experienced dialogue facilitators from Community Dialogue and our extensive Facilitators Network together with our diverse community partners, and experts in participative democracy engagement, public relations and advocacy.

Further Information:

You can read more about our civic innovation programme in the article by Northern Slant, here: How You Can Help Build a Strong Civic Voice with Community Dialogues | Northern Slant

To register your interest and join our mailing list please contact admin@communitydialogue.org

Developed in collaboration with AvilaMedia, our 3-steps strategy aims to Empower, Engage and Elevate. The series includes educational activities combined with consensus building dialogues. Our process has been carefully designed to be responsive to participant’s interests, concerns and capacity, supported by an accessible learning toolbox.

Each workshop includes facilitated dialogues where we will address questions such as:

• How can we best prepare ourselves for participation?
• What are the barriers to decision making in Northern Ireland?
• What does being heard look and feel like?

Using a flexible engagement approach, each session flows between dialogue and presentation allowing participants to explore the themes along with their personal experiences. Designed for both in-person and online engagements, the workshops are deliverable as single sessions up to complete series, depending on the participant group’s existing knowledge and objectives.

Throughout the series, groups will be supported by our skilled facilitators to:

• Receive training on political structures and participative democracy methods.
• Explore opportunities to have your voice heard and identify issues that matter to you.
• Learn about consensus building dialogue.
• Build action planning skills.
• Access workshop materials through our online learning toolbox.
• Join our Network for Civic Action and attend collaboration days.
• Participate in opportunities to share experiences and ideas directly with local and regional decision makers and influencers.
• Attend complimentary training sessions and preparation events with our partners.

To support our flexible method, we encourage members of existing groups to attend a consultation workshop session. This session is offered to discuss specific learning requirements and potential objectives from participation. Our team will then model the learning process according to the feedback provided.

To read about our pilot series and feedback please click here.

If you are interested in participating in one of our workshop series or would like to know more please contact admin@communitydialogue.org to register for our mailing list.

The demand for community services has risen significantly over the last four years, largely due to the impacts of COVID-19 and the resulting physical and mental health challenges and now the cost of living crisis. In response, our Practitioner Forum has been warmly received, creating a safe and open environment for grassroots workers and fostering stronger collaboration.

Building on this initial success and responding to the growing demand for further engagement, Community Dialogue will be expanding the Forum. This initiative aims to provide ongoing support and advocacy for those working in community relations and peacebuilding.

More information on the structure of the Forum network will be available soon. To join our mailing list and get involved, please contact us on Admin@communitydialogue.org

Community Dialogue’s Peace by Peace initiative is a joint project with The Rainbow Project for Northern Ireland and aims to;

1. Increase the sense of belonging of ALL individuals in society
2. Improve good relations between ALL communities in society

It creates safe spaces for people:

• To identify “social interfaces” and work towards the transformation of these interfaces towards more peaceful states of existence
• To attest and begin to heal from the personal impact of their experience of conflict or social interfaces
• To piece together the diverse and intersectional nature of peace and conflict in the variously described NI and beyond.

Throughout the project’s development various interfaces were identified and have included;

• LGBTQ+ identities, trauma and experience within and between Churches and Faith communities.
• Non binary and trans identities interface with the gender binary in societal structures.
• Policing interface and historical relationship with LGBTQ+ and other marginalised communities.
• BAME and LGBTQ+ experiences.
• Human interface with our natural environment.
• UK/NI Interface with EU over Brexit.
• Poverty and wealth disparities.

Our team are currently providing a space for members of the LGBTQ+ community to explore their experience of Church and Faith communities. In some cases this has been a painful journey and enabled a process of reflection and response in an open and healing way.

The Peace by Peace initiative will continue to be supported by Comic Relief and CFNI, as part of the Social Justice Programme 2020-2021, as well as contributing to Community Dialogue’s Civic Innovation programme.

To find out more and to get involved please contact jim@communitydialogue.org

Community Dialogue’s new Gender Justice programme builds on Phase I of the PPAW programme, which was funded by the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade and in partnership with Women’s Information Northern Ireland. PPAW explores the role of the Good Friday Agreement and how it impacts on women. It also set out to make women more visible in the peace process. To explore the past, present and what next in terms of the women’s experience of the peace process and to create a sharing space for women to explore key issues that affect them.

Due to the impacts of Covid-19 there was a pause in the delivery of these events. The programme resumed online activities in April 2021.

Developed by Anne Carr, The Peace Process According to Women follows the RAP process:

Reflection, Acknowledgement and Pushing for Progress.

1. Reflection: to provide opportunities for women of all ages and backgrounds to come together and develop a better understanding of the particular role women have played in the peace process -since the early days of the “troubles” right through to the current day. Campaigning for a rights-based society, gender justice, freedom from all forms of violence and discrimination and an equal and shared and inclusive future. Keeping societies together through the most difficult times, campaigning throughout those years for social justice, an end to sectarianism, support for victims and survivors, challenging discrimination and demanding an end to violence.

2. Acknowledgement: To build understanding of the timeline and processes we as a society have moved through in that journey using timeline materials, film, unpacking specific agreements reached and processes put in place along the way.

3. Push for Progress: Provide time and space for women to share through lived experiences, the issues causing most concern today – including health, housing, family, financial security, coercive control, sectarianism, paramilitary control etc. The RAP Workshops are followed by an Information Sharing Workshop where, depending on the most pressing issues raised by the women, representatives from specific women’s support organisations will provide information on support available.

Phase II is supported by Comic Relief, through Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.

To read the poem “The Peace Process According to Women”, click here

This is a dialogue-based programme, aimed at consensus building on divisive issues. The themes contained have a social justice, human rights and equality focus and look at topics such as the impact of Brexit sectarianism, racism and homophobia, from a social justice and human rights perspective. The project develops a rights-based approach in addressing marginalisation and inequality.

Included in the Social Justice programme are both our Practitioner’s Forum and Peace by Peace initiative. You can read more about these via our current programmes page.

The Social Justice Programme is supported by Comic Relief, through Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.

Building Capacity to Manage Conflict and Diverse Relationships. Reaching Agreement On Contentious Issues. Building A Shared Vision For Our Future

Our Consensus Building Dialogue Programme worked to foster society-wide ownership of divisive issue resolution and our shared future, using needs responsive facilitated dialogue methodology.

This process enabled participants to:

• Build shared understanding of our contested past and the impact and legacy of our conflict.
• Challenge sectarianism and its foundations in myth, stereotype, and ignorance.
• Deepen shared understanding of, and appreciation for, diversity and the positions of others.
• Agree an achievable vision for the future.
• Identify obstacles, such as sectarianism, segregated education and housing and action plan responses.

Throughout the programme participants were provided with the opportunity to:

• Be heard, understood, and taken seriously.
• More deeply understand the positions of others.
• Build skill and capacity to manage conflict and relationships.
• Reach agreement with others on contentious issues.
• Agree effective shared responses.
• Join a growing diverse community who are evolving a shared achievable vision for our future.

Community Dialogue, in conjunction with the Human Rights Consortium and the North West Community Network, organised a dedicated dialogue session aimed at driving participation in the Assembly survey on a Bill of Human Rights.

The event focused on outreach and engagement in order to get the views of participants, listening to what they think and taking on board how they feel about the creation of a Bill of Rights in Northern Ireland.

Issues addressed included:

• Does everyone in Northern Ireland have the same rights?
• Do people need more protection in certain areas?
• Where do values relate to the issue of human rights?
• What has been the impact of Covid on human rights?

Following this event, a meeting was organised with Les Allamby, the Human Rights Commissioner for Northern Ireland, to discuss the findings from the consultations. A joint report was also submitted to the Assembly Committee.

In December 2020, Community Dialogue and Youth Action hosted an Inter-generational story-telling zoom event: Stigma and Shame – experiences and perspectives on HIV/AIDS from the LGBTQ community through the decades.

This event followed from two-way conversations between different people of different identities and ages, sharing their experiences of growing up in their relevant decade and what life was like from a LGBTQ+ perspective. The events included short insights and stories that touch on shame and stigma but also alluded to hope and tenacity.

Our World Aids Day event tied in with a schedule of activities we facilitated with young people on the week before World Aids Day.

Questions that were posed included:

• What does WAD conjure for you?
• How have you encountered shame and stigma from an LGBTQ+ perspective?
• How have things changed in terms of HIV/AIDS stigma?
• How did HIV/AIDS impact your community?
• How can we address stigma?