Funding for West Belfast family centre

Minister for Social Development, Margaret Ritchie, has announced funding for repair and improvement work to the Blackie Family Learning Centre in Beechmount.

The centre, one of the projects under the umbrella of the Blackie Community Groups Association, provides high quality training and childcare facilities for the Blackie area. It is benefiting from £22,400 from the Department for Social Development’s Belfast Regeneration Office under the Neighbourhood Renewal – People and Place strategy.

The funding is being used to convert the existing computer suite into a therapy room and additional office space, with IT facilities being relocated to the training room. New play equipment for the after schools group is also being purchased.

Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie said: “The Blackie Community Groups already provide vital and varied professional services within the Greater Falls neighbourhood. I am sure that the improved training and childcare facilities will prove a further asset to people in the area.

“This project meets the objectives of the Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy: to give people in disadvantaged areas the infrastructure, skills and support that will enable them to improve their quality of life and prospects for the future.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Blackie Community Groups Association was established in 1995 in the Beechmount/Blackie River area of West Belfast. It provides services including community capacity building; childcare; youth work; training and employment initiatives and advice.

2. The Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy ‘People and Place’ was published in June 2003 to close the gap between the quality of life for people in the most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of society.

3. The Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy has four interlinking strategic objectives:

• Community Renewal – to develop confident communities that are able and committed to improving the quality of life in their areas.
• Economic Renewal – to develop economic activity in the most deprived neighbourhoods and connect them to the wider urban economy.
• Social Renewal – to improve social conditions for the people who live in the most deprived neighbourhoods through better co-ordinated public services and the creation of safer environments.
• Physical Renewal – to help create attractive, safe and sustainable environments in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

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