Description:

The Peace People have three strands to their work:

* Welfare
* Youth for Peace
* Peace Campaigns

PSEP funds are used to facilitate Youth for Peace programmes. Youth for Peace has six strands:

* Youth for Peace - Senior (16-25 year olds) - Belfast
* Youth for Peace - Junior (12-16 year olds)
* Peer Education - (18-25 year olds)
* Outreach programmes in Dungannon, Newcastle, Limavady and Omagh
* Camps and exchanges
* School talks and workshops

PSEP supports all of the above programmes but mostly Belfast based Youth for Peace groups and camps.

The events of the Summer has had a negative effect on the Youth for Peace programme but thankfully numbers are returning and a positive attitude is being maintained.

Camps and Exchanges :

* Israel
* Austria
* Germany
* Aland Islands (near Finland)
* France
* Tim Parry Scholarship (North/South exchange)
* Durham camp

Once again we have organised and facilitated a wide range of camps both nationally and internationally. This years programme includes two new camps - one in Austria and a quadrilateral exchange with Israel/Palestine. We have been inundated with applications for the Austria camp from far and wide across the province. The Israel/Palestine camp has taken a long time to organise due to the complexity of united young people from four different countries i.e. Israel/Palestine/Northern Ireland/Southern Ireland. We are offering camps to all age groups which have been a great success to the commitment and dedication of our staff team throughout difficult period of staff changes. The success of the German camp last year has encouraged us to integrate it into our annual programme. A regular camp in Aland will be held again this year over midsummer's night.

All these camps have been organised by the PSEP funded Youth Department Administrator, Fiona McKenzie and will be led by the PSEP funded Youth Worker, Steven Carr.

Durham Camp Age Range 13-14 year olds

Pre-camp ... 7-9 March 1997
Venue ... Kilcranny House, Coleraine
Theme ... Ice-breakers, group agreement, getting to know each other, introduction to identity work, trust builders etc.

Main camp ... 31 March - 6 April 1997
Venue ... St John's College, Durham University
Theme ... Social issues such as care of the environment, identity

Reunion ... 2-4 May 1997
Venue ... Kilcranny House, Coleraine
Leaders ... Steven Carr, Tracey Fox, Shauneen Reid, Joe Dugan and Cathy Donaghy plus seven from Durham.

Host group ... Northern Ireland Youth Encounter , St John's College, Durham
Participants ... 30 young people

Warrington 18th - 25th May 1997

Link up with Glencree cross community youth group and Warrington (Tim Parry Scholarship)

Aland Islands Camp 6-23 June 1997

Exchange Group ... Alands Peace Institute
Theme ... Exchange between the most democratic and the least democratic places in Europe.
Leaders ... Sean O'Baoill and Fiona McKenzie & 2 leaders from the Alands Peace Institute.
Participants ... 10 N.I. participants aged 18-30

Israel/Palestine 6-23 July 1997

Exchange Group ... Neve Shalom, School for Peace, Tel Aviv
Theme ... Gaining an understanding of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and it's relevance to Northern Ireland.
Leaders ... Steven Carr, Pauline Hart and Joe Duggan

Youth for Peace

The Youth for Peace weekly meetings have a varied programme which includes a mixture of socials, workshops and issue based work. As ever these have all been cross community and within our self imposed limits of 60/40% in terms of religious mix. The number of young people is still about 80 members in total. It is difficult to ensure that the weekly meetings are always balanced due to the drop-in nature of the work, however the weekend residentials which we organise for them are always balanced both in terms of gender and religion.

The style of the programme has been changed this year to be three weeks on issues followed by one social. For example, we held an introductory political workshop and followed it up with visits from the Orange Lodge, LORAG and the police. We then completed the series with a wrap up session and brainstorm on the marching/parades issue.

Our two PSEP members of staff are assisting our new Outreach Youth Worker in the creation and maintenance of Youth for Peace groups throughout Northern Ireland.

Peer Education

This programme would not have been possible without the funding received by PSEP, both in terms of our second youth worker and our youth office administrator who provides back-up. Twelve young people have come through last year's course and eight are currently completing a revised version of the course. Our next course will begin in October 1997.

Another series of courses on community relations issues has been set up with young football groups. These range from short two week courses to more intensive three month courses on the subjects of identity, justice, politics, culture, history and non-violence.

School Talks

Our youth team, two of which are funded by PSEP, regularly facilitate workshops on a variety of topics such as:

* Prejudice awareness
* Identity
* Justice
* Team building and Trust
* Non-violence
* History of the Peace People

We also host, plan and facilitate itineraries for visiting groups from overseas.