Northern Youth In The Crosshairs . . . Again
As has been lamented here previously, 160,000 young people in the Six Counties live in ‘deprivation’; 124,000 of these live in ‘poverty’, of which, a staggering 44,000 live in ‘severe poverty’.
It may be argued, with some justification, that declaring that young people actually ‘live’ in ‘deprivation’, ‘live’ in ‘poverty’, or indeed, that they actually ‘live’ in ‘severe poverty’, is a grotesque misrepresentation of the truth. Indeed, it may be entirely more appropriate to speak of how these young people ‘exist’ in ‘deprivation’, ‘exist’ in ‘poverty’ and ‘exist’ in ‘severe poverty’. Surely, actually ‘living’ is too strong an inference for one to make.
In the aftermath of these reports, it is not entirely surprising that Corpus Christi Youth Centre in west Belfast witnessed the coming together of over 100 youth and community activists, for a mixture of protest and debate. It was, in fact, to be expected.
What is surprising, however, is that these much worked and little thanked activists were not meeting to develop strategies for tackling the growing deprivation of our young people. They were not meeting to ensure that additional funds (which would surely be forthcoming considering child deprivation increases of at least 3% since 2006) were targeted in the areas of greatest social need.
No, these activists were meeting to protest at the latest round of attacks on our young people; a further reduction in the already miserly youth provision budget. A reduction in this budget, which, in its entirety, represents a paltry 1.7 per cent of the overall Stormont education ‘budget’, places 25 of the 48 full-time youth workers in Belfast on termination notice.
According to those most affected, this travesty in social justice means that:
“Some youth centres have been threatened with closure, as the Senior Management plan their services with the very limited resources now on offer. The resulting implication on services within our very needy communities will be a severe reduction in services, 70% in some cases… [Which] could affect over 5,000 young people in Belfast alone.”
The true import of these reductions can only be understood when one considers that the areas most affected will be those already experiencing significant long-term material and social deprivation. It will be within areas such as north and west Belfast, which alone represent 14 of the 50 poorest wards in the Six Counties. Areas where the teenage pregnancy rate is three times that of the rest. Areas with higher than average mental illness, substance abuse and suicide rates. Areas where the only statistics which never seem to be above average are those of income, employment, life expectancy, and general financial and social well-being.
And yet, the Six County executive extols that its ‘Programme for Government’ contains a commitment to eliminate child poverty by 2020. How can this be achieved with under funded community and youth sectors?
How can our young people flourish in a society, which has been declared by the authors of the ‘Bare Necessities’ report, to be “one of the most unequal societies in the developed world”?
How can our young people achieve equality of opportunity in a society, which is underpinned by legislation such as section 75 of the ‘Northern Ireland Act’, which places a duty on public authorities to promote equality across nine domains – gender, religious beliefs, age, race, disability, sexual orientation, political opinion, marital status, and families – but crucially does not include class or poor/rich dimensions? How can youth workers be expected to tackle more with less?
Clearly they can’t.
It is therefore incumbent upon every concerned citizen to support the community and youth workers in their battle to secure not only what they currently hold, but for adequate provision of services for the most marginalised in our society – our young people.