Peace and Participation Profile Chapters Launched
The final chapters of the City Profile of Belfast have been launched. Peace and Participation complete the full chapters of the Belfast - Profiling Health, Wellbeing & Prosperity profile report, which look at a range of determinants of health and well-being across Belfast, monitoring trends and comparators across the city.
Expert Advisor to Belfast Healthy Cities and WHO, Erica Ison, who was the lead author, presented some of the key findings of the two chapters to those in attendance. Peace looks at a range of indicators relating to crime, perceptions of safety, sectarianism, racism and homophobia. Participation looks at how involved citizens are within the community, such as involvement in sport or the arts.
Alongside Erica’s presentation, the event also heard from Jim Girvan from Belfast Policing & Community Safety Partnership, who explained how they are working to improve communities and the relationship with policing.
Craig Harrison from Carers NI explained how many people across Belfast are doing unseen work to support family members and neighbours. He explained that the role unpaid carers do is propping the health service up, and that more needs to be done to understand their work and support them.
The final speaker was Damian O’Neill, the principal of Good Shepherd Primary School, who spoke about the Crescendo project, where the Ulster Orchestra tutor children from four primary schools to learn new instruments. The project is having a positive impact on pupils, who are building confidence as well as learning to play music.