Building strong communities

Julia, you were telling me you went back to school late to do your degree. Can you tell me how that came about?

I had just had my child, Bradley, and he was seven weeks old when my father died and I just knew that I wasn't going to progress and that I wasn't in the right profession. I wasn't doing the right thing for me and wasn't happy.

Did you have any aspiration as to what you might want to study?

I did. I did an A level in sociology.

Right.

I had always wanted to do sociology and I wanted to carry on. So I knew I wanted to do a degree in sociology.

Did you go on and do that?

I did: Sociology and social policy.

Was that a BSc?

Aye, at Magee.

And when did you graduate?

2006.

I know you used to work in marketing and advertising, is that what you went back to then, or what did you do?

No, I had always been involved in working with young people, and I would do a bit of youth work in the Waterside, and then I went on to work with the long-term unemployed and New Deal with Rutledge JobLink.

When you were working with kids groups what sort of projects would you have run?

I tried to run a cross-community project once, with groups throughout the Waterside, and I tried to bring all the neighbourhoods together...and it worked quite well.

What sort of things did you do? Did you ever play any practical jokes with them and that sort of thing?

They used to keep us up at night on residentials and that sort of stuff. They'd keep us up all night and we would keep them awake the next night. We did a lot with them on confidence building and bridge building exercises.

All to do with breaking down barriers.

Yep. I loved doing all that sort of stuff.

Well, why did you go on to work with the unemployed?

There was no work, and I had no formal qualifications. I knew I liked desk-based work too, and I liked doing bit of research and I'm an avid reader and would read a lot on current affairs and feel I am a people person and I am quite practical, and I do like a mixture of both. In this work you have to be very 'hands on' and God bless youth workers because they do have their work cut out for them, but there are a lot of brilliant young people out there and I just sometimes think their brilliance has to be brought out. There are also a lot of brilliant youth workers out there too. I could name about 10 that are working here in the Waterside and in the Cityside.

What were you doing when you did New Deal?

I was working on New Deal, but I was also working with young people - that's where I initially started in there, in Training For Success which is a programme for young people who have low educational attainment and low self-esteem, and I worked there with them for over a year and progressed into New Deal which was working with older people, although I still had contacts with the younger people.

You sound as if you enjoy the challenge of getting groups out and organised and empowering themselves...

Aye.

Is that maybe why you came to work on the Gateway to Protestant Participation?

It is about empowerment and building communities up and sustaining themselves. It is about building knowledge, too. I am a firm believer that if people have the knowledge then they have the power to be active citizens who can influence in a positive way. Influence policy.

Historically some policy changes have done a lot of damage to communities and community spirit, hasn't it?

Yes. There is a lot of community, but at times you can wonder where it is...for the first two months on this project I found there was so much community spirit, I saw so many positive people, but they seemed to feel like they were not getting anywhere, and I think it was because they don't have the knowledge themselves and the whole point of this project is to try and underpin knowledge within communities. There is a community leadership programme on it that would be really worthwhile to anyone interested - unfortunately there are only three places.

One thing I have noticed in communities trying to get on their feet again is the lack of know-how, and this programme, Gateway to Protestant Participation, seems to be an avenue to achieving that...

This programme is not about hand-outs or doing things for people. I am more than happy to help anyone in any way, but I think the bigger picture is building communities up from the base itself.

Like giving them a foundation?

Yeah - it's what's been lacking. The 2005 survey showed the Protestant people in the Londonderry area felt very much isolated and alienated from decision makers, from people of importance and from the rest of their community and other communities. They didn't feel comfortable, for example, shopping in town. The stats would shock you. A lot of people have poo-poohed the research, but I think now it is becoming more accepted.

I know your family is heavily involved in sport and you have links with Institute. Can you tell me a bit about your dad (Billy)?

He was my inspiration for studying - for going to university. He gave me the impetus to do more and made me realise there were more things I could be doing. I also got involved with my own community association in Maydown and was secretary there for a while. My daddy was a very giving person and was a big, big family man and was always playing football.

Did you like football?

Yeah, I like football. I love watching it, and it's not for the legs! It really is for the love of the game. I do understand the 'offside rule'.

You've got one up on me then!

It was always a game we watched and played together. Daddy was manager of Institute at intermediate level - this was years ago, and he took 'Stute from Intermediate League to where they are now. They are now a premiership club. Obviously the committee were behind it too, but daddy was the manager at that time.

Do you play?

No. But I still love to go and watch it some Saturdays.