The specific conditions laid down for participation were:

• Councils had to agree on a cross-party basis to participation in the scheme;
• Councils had to draw up a community relations policy statement; (see CRO appendix)
• The policy statement and individual projects undertaken had to be agreed to on a cross-party basis;
• Community relations officers had to be appointed to administer the scheme and their posts advertised under this title, and
• Projects had to include cross-community contact, cultural diversity or mutual understanding work.

The first council joined the scheme in February 1990 and within two years all 26 councils in Northern Ireland were participating. The nature of projects undertaken by community relations officers was contingent upon the extent of support at local authority level.

The role of the community relations officer (CRO) is self-directive and will depend upon support at political and official levels within councils and the extent to which they can link into a network of established community groups. This section covers a selection of the strategy/action plans submitted by CRO’s and the methodology employed when formulating these policies.

Any attempt at classifying the diverse range of projects undertaken by community relations officers in councils is fraught with difficulties. In general, however, four broad types of projects are evident:

• High profile community relations. Projects under this category are generally one-off events aimed at promoting the community relations function through public relations. They tend to attract large numbers but are not part of a long-term developmental strategy. Examples include concerts, sports events, plays, etc.
• Inter/intra community development. Projects here include both single identity and cross-community work. Single identity or intra community projects recognise that polarised communities first need to address their own prejudices prior to engaging in cross-community work. Inter-community development on the other hand builds upon a network of established groups interested in pursuing common goals that straddle the sectarian divide: housing, health, roads, economic development, etc.
• Cultural traditions. Projects under this heading attempt to capitalise on the cross-community benefits that accrue to groups with a shared cultural interest in sport, music, dancing, drama and so on. The approach focuses on what binds communities rather than what separates them.
• Focused community relations. By definition, projects under this heading are much more directive and aim to tackle, head-on, controversial community relations issues. The approach is premised on the idea that people adopt an avoidance strategy and steer clear of politics and religion, particularly in mixed company. This approach suggests that such issues, if left unresolved, compound insidious sectarianism and bigotry. (Source: A Policy Evaluation of the District Council Community Relations Programme. Knox. C, Hughes. J, Birrell. D & McCready. S. Centre for the Study of Conflict, 1993.)
  

For information concerning the initiatives underway in your area contact your local council, see attached section, CRO contact details.

There are many issues experienced by the CRO’s in the execution of their duties, dispelling the myths of hidden agendas, the provision of ‘neutral’ venues, promoting CR issues within council and the adequate addressing of training issues specifically relevant to CRO’s, to name but a few. Cross-community projects are sometimes difficult to organise in the absence of neutral venues. Many CRO’s have been able to generate confidence and trust within cross -community groups which breakdown the barriers that prevent the use of venues normally associated with the ‘other’ side.

Community relations officers have expressed concern about the training currently available to date. Trainers, in turn, have to deal with officers from a variety of backgrounds working in councils that have joined the DCCR programme in a staggered way. Often, CRO’s have undertaken training only to return to an atmosphere where their line manager is unfamiliar and untrained in similar techniques, these issues and many more will be examined by the Community Relations Training and Learning Consortium.

Throughout the course of the Community Relations Practice Project many participants have highlighted the relationship they have with their local CRO as being an element contributing to the success of their individual projects. CRO’s often work within an atmosphere unfamiliar with the principles of community relations, and with managerial structures that have received little or no CR training, yet they have been mentioned throughout the course of this research for their dedication and support. It was suggested at the workshop phase of the research that the relationship between the CRO and the local community merits more support from within council, this could be done by mainstreaming CR principles within every level of local council business. Indeed this approach is being piloted with Newry and Mourne District Council with the assistance of Counteract and Future Ways.

CCRU’s Guidelines on CRO Plans:

This section will deal with the efforts being made by Northern Irelands 26 District Councils to promoting community relations within their respective ‘jurisdictions’. The text that follows describes the guidelines used by CRO’s when formulating their community relations plans, there will also be sample plans attached as an appendix. It is hoped that these guidelines will provide an insight into how groups and councils interact with each other, the overall objectives and planning strategies of the District Council Community Relations Officers, and highlight how councils approach areas such as evaluation, aims and objectives and CR operational plans.

The CRO’s community relations plan should be developed in co-operation with other council staff and elected representatives and should contain the following information:

BACKGROUND
This will include information about your District Council area and the council itself, baseline information about community relationships, areas of geographical polarisation, levels of sectarian violence, community relations issues particular to the area in question. It will also include information dealing with the councils approach to community relations in the past, information gathered as a result of consultation with the target areas stakeholders and those who are currently outside the process. The background section will also identify and prioritise fey CR issues and partners with whom you seek to engage.

MISSION/VISION
This will include a statement that will convey a feeling of ultimate purpose, something worth striving for. This will encapsulate the overall purpose of the community relations officers work. It will reflect the overall mission of the council in question and the CRO working within that council.

AIMS
In this section the CRO will declare what it is he/she intends to do - a statement of purpose. These aims will give the officer a sense of identity and purpose, an idea of what is to be ultimately achieved, a long-term directional plan. The aims listed here should tie in with the aims of the council, which will be set out in there corporate plan, and the aims of the DCCRP as set out by the Central Community Relations Unit (CCRU).

OBJECTIVES
In this section of the community relations plan the CRO will list how they intend to achieve their aims, objectives, initiatives which are likely to have a completion date and things they feel need to be done. These will be separated into areas of work and prioritised and they will lead directly to the CRO’s action/operational plan.

ACTION/OPERATIONAL PLAN
This section will include a detailed outline of the actions required in each area of the CROs work in direct relation to their overall objectives. This section will include dates for completion of projects and the project budget where applicable. There will also be a list of targets and performance indicators for each area of the CRO’s work, these may be quantitative or qualitative methods. CROs may also use this section to highlight what they perceive to be potential barriers or blockages to their work. If projects show particular traits of sustainability they will be documented in this section.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION
This section will include an outline of how the CRO intends to monitor their work and how this will be integrated with their overall CR plan. CRO’s will outline how they intend to assess whether their plan is achieving its aims and objectives and if not, why not? Who will do it? What will they do? When will it be done?

The evaluation is a look back at the outcomes of the CRO’s work to see what lessons have been learnt and fed into future decisions with a view to improving efficiency, effectiveness and value for money. More in-depth detail of the above sections can be found in CCRU Guidelines, 1998.

Sample of CRO Responses to CRPR Project

On Formulating Aims and Objectives;
"Before the start of the District Council Community Relations Officers CR plans the aims and objectives of CRO’s were dictated by council. I did look back at the work that CCRU had undertaken in the past and to an extent ‘poached’ some of the past aims and objectives. Since the introduction of the CRO support officer and the CR plans we have seen a marked improvement. When setting the aims and objectives now I would regularly consult other departments within council and the stakeholders in the community, from this I have been able to gauge both internal and external attitudes towards CR. If the councils perception towards CR is different from the communities perception this has to be addressed and the core problems have to be ironed out. This has helped when deciding upon future projects. If there are resources at your disposal they should be exploited, our council has had an events department that was not networking with the CRO, this has now changed and has proved to be essential to project success. Although CRO’s need to consult at all levels they should also have a level of autonomy within council, the power relationship between council and CRO office has to be examined and clarified. The most significant thing to happen to CRO’s over the years has been the appointment of a support officer which has proved invaluable and should have been done years ago".

"Again we used the consultation process with the community sector, funded groups, statutory bodies, council committee, council itself, the voluntary sector and the clergy were all involved and given the chance to feedback on the issue. Again the aims and objectives would never be set in stone, because the peace process is constantly changing we have to be flexible and prepared. Developing the CRO CR plan has helped me dictate the aims and objectives of our initiatives, but it is a very long process that merits caution".

On Undertaking Impact Assessment;
"I have received no formal training in this area, which is interesting when we consider that many CRO’s come from diverse backgrounds that have not necessarily had anything to do with CR. I have used my networks in the past, local activists and the community as a means of training, and in a way we have been learning from our mistakes. If I have ever been in doubt about anything I will simply ask the community or communities that I am working with. I do have a draft evaluation form that I have been trying out but in order to test it fully I have to do one for each project that I undertake and this takes time that I do not have. The structured format of the CR plans has been a great help to me, and the follow up support that I have had. One of the areas that I would like to see a change in is CCRU’s monitoring data. We can provide all the data that is required but we very rarely find out the findings from all of this data. We have to be informed of all findings in this area if we are to adapt our approaches accordingly. The performance indicator data that is presented to us recently has been written in a foreign language, why is this, why can it not be written in plain English? I also believe that evaluation should be more qualitative than quantitative if true value is to be gained from it".

"The traditional monitoring form for all grant aided schemes, there has been a degree of analysis of that, most of the other work done within council has not been monitored as such. One of the main elements of a sustainable project is whether or not it is progressive, and if it isn’t how could it be made to be progressive? We have been trained to a degree in evaluation and impact assessment work but not specifically in CR issues, these have been directed at other council elements. There has not been to my knowledge any specific initiatives aimed specifically at training CRO’s in evaluation and assessment work, again we are hopeful that the CRO support Officer and the CRTC will address this issue".

On Community Relations, Councils and Success;
"Success is a very progressional thing. If I can take an example from past experience, a murder that was directly attributed to the parades issue. In this village there was an 80:20 ratio. Over the last few years this has completed flipped to 20:80. We decided to invite youth leaders from both sides that have never met each other and we began to examine what the parades issue meant to both traditions. The discussion element actually began to pick up pace and progress was excellent, this was done under a six week time limit. This was a success because the youth groups that were involved were the directors of the project, they recruited the people that were going to work on the project. This in event meant that the participants and practitioners were cross-political, cross-party and cross-sectoral, They never maid a statement unless it represented all of the groups feelings. Integration at leadership level was the key to the success of that project, this in effect made facilitation easier. Some of the problems in the past have arisen because groups have tried to integrate people before they have tried to integrate themselves. I believe that the introduction of the DCCRO CR plans will greatly benefit my work, it will mainstream CR more into council activities".

"There is so much diversity in that arena in which I work that I find honesty to be the best policy in CR work. Once we have admitted that we all are responsible for the problems within our society we can all move forward together, we have to be honest with ourselves and each other. We have moved from being a dictating council to a listening one and once the community starts to believe that we are really listening to their fears they will be more willing to work with us in the future. People seem to give us more of a break now because they believe that we are really interested in making significant changes. We could not be successful if they community thought we weren’t trying. We still have a lot to do because there are councilors that will not change and communities that will not change but you cannot be disheartened, perseverance is the key to success. It took us a while to realise that the councils are as much to blame as the communities and this re-examination of ourselves has helped us gear our approach within the community, we have noticed a change in how the community perceives us. Another thing that has aided our success is that we have found out what issues mean most to the councilors and geared our approach, if a councilor is particularly interested in the economy we convince him of the benefits that better relationships within the community will have for the local economy."

Contact Details of Councils and Community Relations Officers

Central Community Relations Unit (CCRU), Telling the Story of CR and the Role of Europe through the PSEP Sub-programme, 1994-99: Project Directory, Belfast: Central Community Relations Unit.

Central Community Relations Unit (CCRU) (1998), Guidelines for Developing a Community Relations Plan for District Councils, September 1998 , Belfast: Central Community Relations Unit. COVERSCAN

Community Relations Council, (1992) What the Local Parties Say On Community Relations Belfast: Community Relations Council Bulletin, Vol.8. , 1992.

Community Relations Council (1998), Dealing With Difference, A Directory of Peace, Reconciliation and Community Relations Projects in Northern Ireland, Belfast: Community Relations Council. COVERSCAN

Community Relations Council (1999) Community Relations Council News (Monthly Magazine), {External_Link} Belfast: Community Relations Council.

Community Relations Council, Community Relations Council strategic plan: Into the Mainstream, 1998-2000, Belfast: Community Relations Council.

Community Relations Council, Setting Objectives and Performance Indicators, Action Learning Programme 1994-95, Belfast: Community Relations Council.

Community Relations Council, (1998) Developing a Strategic Plan, Belfast: Community Relations Council. COVERSCAN

Department of Health and Social Security, (1982) Local Authority Community Work: Realities of Practice, Department of Health and Social Security, Social Research Branch.

Gallagher. D and Dunn. S, (1991) Community Relations in Northern Ireland: Attitudes to Contact and Integration, Coleraine: University of Ulster. COVERSCAN

Knox. C, Hughes. J, Birell. D and McCready. S, (1994) Community Relations and Local Government, Coleraine: University of Ulster. (ISBN 1 85923 060 1) 169 pages £8.00

Knox. C Hughes. J, (1992) Policy Evaluation in Community Development: Some Methodological Considerations, Coleraine: University of Ulster. COVERSCAN

Ó'Máolain. C, (1993), Register Of Research On Northern Ireland 1993 Edition Coleraine: University of Ulster. (ISBN 1 871206 69 3) COVERSCAN

Youth Council for Northern Ireland, Community Relations Guidelines, Youth Work Curriculum.