The six counties that form Northern Ireland, locked as they are within ancient traditions dividing Loyalists from Republicans, Protestants from Catholics, Ulstermen from Irish, have scarcely had time to see their young people as anything but incomplete persons requiring inculcation into the complex ways of adulthood. Less troubled societies have had the leisure to reflect on the special contributions youth may provide: a freshness of vision, a burst of interest, a renewal of passion. But Northern Ireland, for many understandable reasons, has seen its own youth more as objects of socialization than as subjects for creation. The idea of youth as resources is a new one in that land.

New as the idea of youth as resources may be in Northern Ireland, it would nonetheless appear to be one whose time is rapidly in approach. A recent report on youth empowerment has been summarized with a reference to Dickens:

As members of an international study team from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, the ten of us approached our week in Northern Ireland with a keen interest in learning what it was like to grow into a society long divided by ancient hatreds and misunderstandings. We prepared ourselves in the ways researchers do: by reading about "the troubles" that plagued intergroup relations, especially between 1969 and the coming of the Peace Accord in 1998; by combing the ample websites of dozens of youth-related agencies; by working with a local arrangements consultant in planning for the fullest and most productive use of our scarce visit time.

We also looked forward to working in partnership with a leadership team from the Center for Youth as Resources (CYAR), who expressed a strong interest in learning with us about youth development leaders in Northern Ireland. Five members formed the CYAR team, including Executive Director Marilyn Bassett, Associate Director Jeff Todd, founding YAR staffer Paula Allen, and two young persons with considerable board and staff experience (Jennifer Cheslock and Anita Cobb).

A preliminary visit by Jon Van Til to the Centre for Voluntary Action Studies (CVAS) at the University of Ulster in Coleraine (Northern Ireland) in the Summer of 2000 led to a review of literature and a subsequent examination of public materials regarding major youth-serving organizations. This review confirmed an initial observation that, despite a 400-year history of conflict between Loyalist (Protestant) and Republican (Catholic) individuals and communities, few programs existed which involved young people devising their own community-based programs of service and advocacy.

The visit also gave rise to the idea that creating a linkage between an international studies course at Rutgers, the resources of the University of Ulster, and the Center for Youth as Resources might provide the kind of integration of teaching, research and service that educational reformers have prescribed but universities have rarely achieved (Cf. Gilsinan, 2000). We asked: Could a team of undergraduates productively act as an exploratory research unit to provide information on another country's programming that would be useful to the development plans of an international organization like the Center for Youth as Resources?

A three-phase plan was developed between Rutgers, CYAR, and the Centre for Voluntary Action Studies to move step by step toward the implementation of our vision:

1. An initial conference exploring the feasibility of the collaboration and a commitment to proceed with the effort was held in November 2000 at Rutgers, with participation also from Dr. Arthur Williamson, Director of CVAS;
2. An on-site review and exploration of youth-serving organizations and programs in the cities of Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland was designed, and then conducted in March 2001;
3. (As a further possibility) a collaborative two-day search and design conference was discussed, which might be held upon invitation in Northern Ireland with the participation of CYAR leadership and interested youth-related leaders (including youth themselves). At this writing, such a conference is under consideration by a cross-national team committee being organized by CYAR.

Our visiting team consisted of eight undergraduate students at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey. We approached our visits with community and youth-serving organizations in Northern Ireland with great eagerness, wishing to learn how community organizations work in their country, and how they serve the different populations that live in the cities of Belfast and Derry, where our observations were concentrated. We were particularly interested in learning about how young people are involved in the work of their groups.

Among our concerns were several that dealt with particular organizational characteristics: organizational mission, principal clienteles, conceptions of communities served, impacts of organizational practice, services provided, patterns of staffing.

Another reason we traveled to Northern Ireland involved sharing our interest in the work of Youth as Resources programs, presently operating in nearly seventy locations in four countries around the globe. The key element of Youth as Resources is that young people are able to design and choose their own programs to help build their communities and societies. We approached our conversations with Northern Ireland youth-serving organizations with an interest in learning how the Youth as Resources approach to creating community activities among youth would resonate in this environment.

THE CONCEPT OF "BRIDGING SOCIAL CAPITAL" AS DISTINGUISHED FROM "BONDING SOCIAL CAPITAL

Youth as Resources manifests in its programs a powerful social vehicle for the building of what Robert D. Putnam, in his influential contemporary study of social participation, calls "social capital". As developed in 1916 by West Virginia school superintendent L. J. Hanifan, the concept of "social capital" involves people interacting in local communities so as both to meet their individual needs and to improve living conditions in their broader community.

Putnam proceeds to draw a distinction between two forms of social capital YAR programs seek to create. "Bridging social capital", he explains, is "outward looking" and involves interactions across social boundaries such as those of race, class, age, gender, and place of residence. "Bonding social capital", on the other hand, is "inward looking" and tends to reinforce exclusive identities within homogeneous groups such as neighborhoods or local communities. Bridging social capital generates "broader identities and reciprocity," while bonding social capital "bolsters our narrower selves" (pp. 22-23). Because it reinforces strong in-group loyalties, Putnam warns, bonding social capital may create antagonisms toward out-groups.

Societies trying to deal creatively with diversity, Putnam argues, are faced with a dilemma:

This dilemma faces any organization seeking to develop programs in a segregated society. It concerns Youth as Resources of Central Indiana as it develops programs in suburban as well as urban areas, an issue I addressed in a "stakeholder assessment" earlier this year (Van Til, 2000). And it will face any similar organization that seeks to develop programs in the far more firmly segregated society that is Northern Ireland's, where the lives of persons of differing religious and national loyalties, particularly within working-class communities, are rigidly divided from each other by "peace walls" that isolate neighborhoods from each other and by rigidly segregated patterns of school attendance.

Youth-serving organizations in Northern Ireland are well aware of the difficulties involved in building bridging social capital, even when funding for such programs is made available from philanthropic sources. A number of North American foundations have for some years insisted on the criterion of bridging in awarding grants to Northern Ireland organizations. These requirements often failed to achieve the end of advancing positive intergroup contact.

The distinguished social psychologist Thomas Pettigrew, in a recent review article, recalls the four conditions typically identified as undergirding optimal intergroup contact:

1. Individuals enjoy equal group status within the situation.
2. Common goals are held by members of the different groups.
3. Intergroup cooperation is a value within the larger society.
4. Authorites support the goal of intergroup cooperation.

More recent research, Pettigrew asserts, has established a fifth condition as even more vital:

5) The contact situation must provide the participants with the opportunity to become friends.

Pettigrew expands on this fifth criterion: "Such opportunity implies close interaction that would make self-disclosure and other friendship-developing mechanisms possible. It also implies the potential for extensive and repeated contact in a variety of social contexts….Optimal intergroup contact requires time for cross-group friendships to develop."

An interview with Terence Flanagan, principal of East Belfast's Lagan Integrated College, illustrates the importance of personal friendships in the creation of bridging social capital. A secondary school established in 1981, the Lagan school accepts students by equal quotas of Protestants and Catholics, and also seeks an even balance of boys and girls. Flanagan (quoted in Parker, 1993: 99-100) spoke some years back of the results of a study conducted by a university researcher at his school:

To Pettigrew, the process of building positive intergroup contact is a developmental one, which may advance through three phases he calls "decategorization", "salient categorization", and "recategorization" (See Figure). At the Lagan Integrated School, as seen by its principal, students retain "a strong sense of who or what they were and their origins" but they seem "to be more aware than pupils in other schools that their friends and colleagues were similarly conscious of their identities and didn't necessarily share the same points of view." In Pettigrew's terms, the Lagan students had advanced to the stage of "salient categorization" by means of establishing and maintaining contact with schoolmates of different backgrounds. And this contact led not only to liking, but also to a reduction of prejudice. As the principal reports: "(T)hey nearly all thought solutions to political problems should come from tolerance and compromise, not from 'We must win, they must lose' attitudes."

Despite the power of Pettigrew's theory, and the dramatic success of the Lagan school experiment, no one contemplating a social intervention in Northern Ireland should do so without the most careful planning and design. Getting even to Pettigrew's Step C (Initial Contact) problematic even under the best of conditions, and establishing that contact (Step D) is rarer still. Northern Ireland, because of the fundamental political disagreements among its residents, disagreements underlain in most cases by religious structures and historical slights dating back through centuries, is one of those places in the world where people often disagree violently with each other, and only rarely recognize the rights of those with whom they disagree.

Pettigrew views Northern Ireland as a classic difficult case in intergroup contact, noting that all five situational factors are problematic there:

NORTHERN IRELAND TODAY

The peace process signified by the "Yes" vote in 1998 has certainly reduced the level of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. But, as the Irish Times reminds us in a recent editorial (August 14, 2000), the potential for conflict and harm remains a current reality:

During the Rutgers-CYAR field visit of March 2001, we consulted first with two leading Northern Irish academics: the historian Seamus Dunn and the social policy specialist Derek Wilson (both of the University of Ulster). Prof. Dunn described for us the "fragile balance" involved in the current peace process. Conflicts of the Northern Irish sort cannot be resolved, he noted, but they may be able to be transformed. And, as in any peace process, the really hard work begins after the agreements have been signed.

In the Northern Ireland case, four separate agreements form the peace accord:

1. a power-sharing agreement in the North
2. a North-South agreement with the Republic of Ireland
3. an East-West agreement with the British government
4. a set of human rights protections.

With a population currently divided at about 55% Protestant and 45% Catholic, Northern Ireland is seeking to advance beyond the struggles that characterized its recent time of "Troubles" (1969-1998), when many lives and much property was lost in a vain effort by Loyalists, Republicans, and British forces. This "lose-lose" process led, eventually, to a willingness by "men of violence" to explore political means of resolving their differences, often facilitated by such outside facilitators as the greatly admired Americans, President Bill Clinton and Senator George Mitchell.

The peace agreement, Prof. Dunn asserted, is both pragmatic and incomplete. It has not ended conflict and violence, but has rather driven them a bit more underground. New forces of violent organization have arisen on both sides of the conflict, and the bitter hatred between solidary group members continues, even in middle-class locations in which families on both sides live in close proximity and apparent harmony with each other.

In the ghettos, an increasing level of disorganization may be found. A set of perplexing issues remains, involving such matters as: 1) policing; 2) prisoner release; 3) marches; 4) the display of flags, symbols, and emblems; 5) decommissioning of weapons; 6) support for victims of violence; 7) the dismantling of military structures; and 8) the rise of what may be called "ordinary garden variety crime."

To Seamus Dunn, both pragmatic and moral imperatives suggest that the peace process must continue to be pursued, despite the setbacks that will inevitably attend its development. He concluded with the question: "If not now, when?"

Dr. Derek Wilson, a leading figure in Northern Irish youth development, and a former director of the cross-community rural-based organization, Corymeela, spoke to our group about the "deep silence" that greets considerations of diversity and equity in Northern Ireland. Tensions between the two major solidary groups are masked by an overt politeness that focuses conversation on sports or the weather, avoiding the real issues that must be confronted of cross-community tensions are to be addressed and resolved.

The practice of youth work tends to be set in the context of voluntary partisan traditions, he explained, and is part of an official scene that involves denial, normalization, and professionalization of societal problems. On the frontiers of ethnicity in Northern Ireland, Wilson asserted, fears tend to shape responses. There are few "transcending organizations" to bridge the social divide.

Change, if it is to occur, Wilson continued, will come about when relationships between individuals, families, and groups begin to develop and change. This will require safe spaces that engender confidence between persons of differing backgrounds. It is not that their traditional relationships need to be replaced; rather, it is that new relationships must be created as well. In contested societies like Northern Ireland, he observed, the past is always present. In stable societies, on the other hand, the place of the past is to move increasingly into the social distance.

Wilson was emphatic in noting that the silent avoidance pertaining to issues of sectarianism, race, and gender characterizes all social classes in Northern Ireland. There is much that must be done to "deal with fear" throughout the land. But, he added, some progress may be noted in an increase in the "politics of issues" and a modest decline in the "politics of identity".

Trust will be the currency of social progress in Northern Ireland, Wilson asserted. Building trust requires a vision of equity, diversity, and interdependence-- and especially the latter. Activities such as the newly organized JEDI (Journey toward Equity and Diversity), launched by governmental leader Martin McGuinness, move in the proper direction. Trust will develop when people find themselves comfortable in unexpected meetings.

As for youth development, Wilson noted that young people are often blamed for violence in his society. A new generation of youth workers, especially those presently in training at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, have won his respect for their commitment and vision. The introduction of Youth as Resources programs, he concluded, would, by providing small increments in resources and large introductions of independence, a critical impetus toward a welcome establishment of youth initiative in Northern Ireland.

VISITS WITH YOUTH-SERVING ORGANIZATIONS

The largest part of the Rutgers observation involved visits by team members to some 23 youth-serving organizations in three locations (Belfast, Derry and Coleraine) over a five-day period. A leadership team from the Center for Youth as Resources joined with the Rutgers team in six of those meetings, and also conducted interviews with two additional organizations.

The organizations visited were themselves diverse. Included among them were ones large and small, some relatively well-funded and others shoestring-operated. We visited groups that were Catholic, Protestant or decidedly cross-community. We found some groups to be highly traditional and others decidedly innovative. In almost every case, we found more than a polite interest in learning more about the Youth as Resources approach.

Many of the groups we visited provided young people with the opportunity of visiting the United States, often in cross-community groups, for residential, work, or camp experiences. These experiences, we noted, did not always provide for a continuing linkage among the visiting young people of differing backgrounds upon their return to Northern Ireland. But the ubiquitousness of such programs, even in the notorious working-class areas like Belfast's Falls and Shankill, were indeed notable.

Other programs, such as the youth groups we visited in the Falls (Catholic) and Shankill and Donegal Pass (Protestant) areas of Belfast, sought to engender attitudes of tolerance within homogeneous groups of young people in these highly segregated neighborhoods. Within a Protestant youth center, for instance, the young people were referred to as "Peace People", and, notably, one of the members of the group was identified as a descendant of an infamous Unionist para-military figure. On the other side of the cultural divide, the youth worker who conducted the youth group we observed in the Falls area was a brother of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

Similarly, the Derry groups we observed in linkage with either the Holywell Trust (on the overwhelmingly Catholic "Cityside") or the Maydown Ebrington community center (atop the predominantly Protestant "Waterside" of the city), worked primarily in their own communities, though both developed significant programs addressing cross-community needs and participation.

The program we identified that most closely resembled the Youth as Resources model was the "Go for It" program of Youthnet. The CYAR team met with Linda Gordon and Paul Murphy at YouthNet. YouthNet

is essentially a network of youth-serving organizations to which a large number of organizations from across Northern Ireland belongs. They are an independent agency which represents the interests and aspirations of voluntary youth work organizations in Northern Ireland. They provide resources and funding opportunities for their member organizations. Their stated key functions are:

* Developing the network of voluntary youth organizations in Northern Ireland and in the island of Ireland, within the UK and the European community;

* Representing the voluntary youth work sector at policy level;

* Promoting volunteering in youth work;

* Providing support and information to member groups including training events and seminars;

* Grant giving function as an Intermediary Funding Body for the EU Special Funding Body for Peace and Reconciliation and other small grant awards;

Probably the most enlightening part of our visit was to hear about their "Go For It" project. This project was remarkably similar to the Youth as Resources model. The only real difference was that the youth-adult partnership component was downplayed, with the grant-giving board made up entirely of youth. Unfortunately, this was only a pilot program and has since ended. They have expressed their interest in reviving it for another round, which could provide a good contact for YAR in Northern Ireland. CYAR staff was also impressed with the advanced evaluative component to the Go For It project.

The CYAR team met with Paul Smyth and Frank Murphy at Youth Council for Northern Ireland. Similar to Youthnet, the Youth Council is a networking and funding entity for youth programming throughout Northern Ireland. They are apparently the primary avenue through which government funding is distributed. They seem to have a good sense of what is going on throughout the Island in the area of youth development. They were a partner, along with Save the Children and the Carnegie Trust, in the "Taking the Initiative" publication, and were able to share contact information with various other entities that may be of interest as we move forward in working across Ireland. They definitely expressed an interest in the work of CYAR and offered to assist in the convening of future meetings, should these occur.

The competency and dedication of youth workers that we met in our visit was notable. Youth work is a profession taken seriously in Northern Ireland, and its practitioners work long and hard at their tasks. An example was provided by our joint interview with a youth worker and a police sergeant in Coleraine. Not only did the two men from different organizations work together admirably, but they also demonstrated a strong commitment in their work to advancing cross-community efforts.

The Coleraine interviews (we also met with a borough council staffer actively engaged in cross-community, including organizing a thirty-mile boat trip among housing estate resident women in a traditional Irish "curragh", or long row-boat) indicated to us that even in that relatively small town, the winds of change were blowing in new directions as far as youth work is concerned. The councilperson mentioned that "shadow councils" were beginning to be organized, where young people took the roles of borough leadership. The youth worker noted that he is increasingly beginning to facilitate meetings of youth, and then to leave the room himself while the young members of groups contemplate their own decisions. And the police sergeant observed that "community-led" work was a growing theme in the district.

A WIND AT THE BACK OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

Our participation at a convocation in Belfast's Waterfront Hall by the Save the Children organization on March 14 gave ample evidence of the degree to which viewing youth as resources was rapidly developing as a policy consideration in Northern Ireland. The convocation was titled "Taking the Initiative: Promoting Young People's Involvement in Public Decision Making in Northern Ireland." Attended by over 100 leaders in the youth service field, the convocation featured presentations by a leading television commentator, the director of a principal funding organization, young people actively involved in three area organizations, the author of a report on youth involvement, leaders of principal governmental and nongovernmental youth-serving organizations, and a ranking member of the Northern Ireland "First Minister's" office.

The conference began with an effective skit that parodied the many ways in which adults typically patronize, ignore, demean, and otherwise let young people know that they do not count for much. The various officials spoke warmly of the importance of building autonomous and pro-active youth participation into the fabric of Northern Irish society and governance; the researcher charted the limited progress that had already been achieved in this regard; and the young people spoke eloquently of programs they had already developed as part of this initiative. Participants in the Greater East Belfast Youth Strategy Group described an internet conference they developed that involved over 100 young people in a consideration of human rights issues in the context of the post-Good Friday agreement context. A second effort they described involved the "Big Sister, Wee Brother" program--which sought to provide support and guidance to young boys faced with the temptations of paramilitary and delinquency options within their communities.

The author of the report presented at the conference, Rodney Green, explained that youth empowerment ranges from consulting with youth to "child-initiated and directed" programs. A survey of 130 responding governmental and nongovernmental organizations found that two-thirds of the organizations involved young people to some degree in their work. Four of five of the involving organizations reported positive changes as a result of the youth involvement, particularly in the areas of identifying gaps in service, developing better organizational procedures, and increasing the pride of the organization in its work. The report presented nine "portraits in practice" of youth involvement in various locations throughout Northern Ireland.

The report (Green, 2001: 5) reviewed six principles presented in an earlier report that defined good practice in the area of youth empowerment:

1. Honesty about agendas and limitations.
2. Voluntary improvement of young people in the process
3. User led approaches that enable young people to undertake actions themselves.
4. Flexibility and quality of programmes.
5. Professionals in working partnership with young people.
6. Challenging of ineffective structures and approaches that block participative methodology and practice.

The report concluded with a statement describing the road ahead:

Clearly this visible and prestigious report represents a strong wind that blows at the back of those who seek to advance the vision of youth as resources in Northern Irish society. The various evidences we discovered of programs involving youth in ever more central roles indicates that this movement is both real and advancing. But, one caution should be added: cross-winds are always a possibility, and more than one respondent noted the uncertain future facing funding in this field. Paradoxically, this potential decline in support reflects the successes achieved in the peace process. With cross-community conflict less prominent, funding sources are already giving indications of shifting their priorities. It would be unfortunate, indeed, if these changes would have their likely effect of weakening initiatives that view youth as societal resources just at the moment that they begin to advance onto the primary agendas of leading youth development organizations.

STATUS (AS OF 2002) OF IMPLEMENTING YOUTH PARTICIPATION AMONG SELECTED NORTHERN IRELEND YOUTH SERVING ORGANIZATIONS

Meaningful youth participation in public and community projects generates a winning situation for both young people and for the organizations and communities who welcome them. Youth empowerment and capacity building, according to the Carnegie Young People Initiative (2001), must include involvement of young people in local and national projects to enhance their ability to participate as citizens. Outcomes of youth participation include fully utilizing existing resources, effective program planning, and facilitating services. Full participation in community activities builds self awareness in youth, letting them know that they are a part of something larger than themselves, a part of a community that cares (Center for Youth as Resources, 2001).

Recognizing that Northern Ireland is emerging from over three decades of conflict, and that there is a changing political structure being put in place, the role of children and young people are regarded as less entrenched and more receptive to new ways of thinking. Youth involvement initiatives have grown ten fold in Northern Ireland in the past several years, illustrating increased recognition that young people have both the right to engage with decision makers and to expect responsive services (Youth Council of Northern Ireland, 2001). Currently, the Community Relations Act, Section 75, from the Good Friday Peace Accord, provides the statutory impetus to continue implementing youth participatory projects.

The Rutgers University International 2002 Study Course focused on the role of non-profit and voluntary community agencies in Northern Ireland in their quest for social peace and change. This report describes one component of that quest, the implementation of youth participation in local, national and cross border agencies. A description of the extent of youth participation in selected youth serving agencies is given. Additionally, the interviewer attempted to describe youth serving practices which may be utilized by the international services component of Center for Youth as Resources (CYAR). CYAR is a United States based international organization, actively promoting the process of young people designing and choosing their own programs to help build their communities and societies. Study questions were designed around the YAR model of young people serving as a funding agency for youth projects. These findings may clarify how the Youth as Resources model could be applied in Northern Ireland’s special environment. Lastly, interest in a cross national conference for sharing resources and findings, among CYAR, Rutgers University and NI agencies, was explored. The conference is seen as an intermediate step in developing the YAR model for youth participation in NI.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A continuum typology of youth participation, generated by Roger Hart (1991) and presented to the World Health Organization will be used to discuss the level of youth participatory activities found in this study. The model ranges from rudimentary inclusion of youth to full integration of youth within an organization. Categories include: manipulation; tokenism; assigned but informed; consulted and informed; adult-initiated, shared decisions with young people; and young person initiated and directed. The levels of participation in Hart’s model represent a shifting power balance between adult control and young person control.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Sample

Key informant interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of six youth serving agencies in Northern Ireland. These agencies were urban centered (Belfast), rural centered (Coleraine), national, local and cross border. Three of the six agencies participated in the Rutgers University international research study in 2001. When re-contacted for participation this year, they readily gave consent. Recommendations for new participants were obtained from members of the 2001 Rutgers collaborative international study team. Due to time constraints, no agencies from the Derry area were included in this years sample. The participants contacted were considered to be the gatekeepers of youth serving organizations in Northern Ireland.

Description of key informants, the agency, and the location.

This section contains the mission of the agency, the geographic environment (urban, local or national), and the professional position of the key informant(s) representing the agency.

University of Ulster, Coleraine, Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA): a part of the UNESCO Center of UUC. Ms Lorraine Heffernan, MA, HECUA Program Director. The program serves to provide university level internships to students from the USA. University based students are place in youth serving urban projects across NI.

Coleraine Local Action Group for Enterprise, Ltd. (COLLAGE): a part of Coleraine Borough Council Integrated Development Strategy for Economic, Community, Rural and Tourism. Ms Kate Burns, MSc, Program Manager for the Development Services Unit. The program provides technical and limited financial support for community business regeneration projects, environmental projects, food companies and craft producers. Primarily local and rural, but also inclusive of several cross border projects.

YouthNet: located in Belfast, it is an umbrella body for the voluntary youth sector, operating as a resource and lobbying organization for its member. Additionally, YouthNet is an Intermediary Funding Body for EU Special Peace and Reconciliation Projects. Projects are urban and rural, and across Northern Ireland. Ms Nora Greer, Program Evaluator, and Mr. Paul Murphy, Program Youth Worker.

Save the Children: NI regional office in Belfast. Save the Children is through out the United Kingdom and is a leading children’s charity. Long-term development and prevention is given to help children, their families and communities, to be self-sufficient. Save the Children campaigns for solutions to the problems children and young people face. All the work is underpinned by a commitment to making a reality of the rights of children enshrined in the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child. In Northern Ireland, Save the Children works through a variety of partnership approaches to support community action on children’s issues, to facilitate children and young person-led initiatives, to undertake independent research and policy analysis, and to promote children’s rights through public education and fundraising activities. Projects are local, national, and at the policy level. Dr. Paula Rodgers, Policy and Research Manager for Save the Children; Ms Christine King, Communications and Advocacy Coordinator for Save the Children.

Co-Operation Ireland, North and South Working Together: located in Belfast. The intent is to build peace by advancing mutual understanding and respect through promotion of practical co-operation between the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (ROI). Funding is given for cross border cultural links and cross border business links. Ms Karen Collins, MA, Program Director of Youth, Education and Community Exchange Programs.

Youth Council of Northern Ireland: located in Belfast. A focus on local and national activities and on policy level development. This is a non-departmental organization of the Northern Ireland government. Mr. Paul Smyth, Community Relations Development Officer for the Statutory Strand 2 of the Community Relations Youth Services Support Scheme.

Instrumentation

A Key Informant Topic Guide was developed for this study based on the constructs from a brain storming session attended by Professor Jon Van Til, Rutgers University, the Executive Director of CYAR, Mr. George Rice, and this author, member of the 2002 international study team and consultant to CYAR.

Constructs for the topic guide included:

• Description of current YAR like practices
• The facilitating features of current projects
• The barriers to current projects
• Intentions for future YAR practices in Northern Ireland
• Intentions for participation in a CYAR cross-national research conference to share experiences

Data Collection

Interviews were conducted with agency representatives considered to be the most knowledgeable regarding the concept of youth as a resource, as it was experienced by the host agency. Each interview was conducted in the agency and took approximately 1½ hours.

Analysis Plan.

Themes were qualitatively analyzed for each question across all participant agencies. Additionally, specific answers to were tallied. Quotes were used to exemplify the themes.

RESULTS

Information and answers from each of the six participant agencies according to the topic guide questions are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Results of Key Informant Interviews with Six Youth Serving Agencies in Northern Ireland

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

Current YAR-like Projects. There were n=20 projects reported by the six agencies. Each was classified with the Hart (1991) typography continuum. The projects described were at mid level on the continuum, "assigned but informed" and "consulted and informed", and progressed to the higher level of the continuum, "adult initiated, shared decisions with young people" and "young person initiated and directed". No projects fell into the unacceptable lower levels of "manipulation" or "tokenism". The frequency count for project by classification are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Frequency Count of Each Project (N=20) by Classification

Six of the seven projects had mid level and high-level classifications. There were 9/20 (45%) mid level projects and 11/20 (55%) high level projects. The most frequent classification was "Young People Initiated and Directed", a classification implying full integration of youth in the project.

Additionally, three major themes evolved from the project descriptions. A quote to exemplify each theme is included below:

• a sense of competence- - "The young people had never been heard before, and their new confidence allowed them to criticize the school, and the schools were uncomfortable". (Save the Children)

• a sense of usefulness- "My disability is cerebral palsy. I have been glad to do something that gives disabled people the chance to be heard and to say what they think". (Save the Children)
• a sense of belonging- "The research gave opportunity to 1000 young people to record their experiences…during the Troubles. The aim was to give political voice to young people currently excluded from expressing views". (YouthNet)

Facilitating factors. There were five themes which emerged from the facilitating section. The themes and accompanying quotes include:

• adequate resources were mentioned by 4 agencies- "Financial resources are available from the EU, from Northern Ireland Assembly, and the United Kingdom government". (Youth Council of Northern Ireland)
• organizational commitment (ethos) was mentioned by 3 agencies- "There is a strong ethos within YouthNet to promote youth". (YouthNet)
• dedication of young people or the front line staff was mentioned by 3 agencies- "Young people were dedicated to the project despite hard and long days". (Save the Children)
• inclusion of diverse groups, especially disenfranchised young people, was mentioned by 2 agencies- "Recruiting for deprived youth is done through offering incentives such as outdoor pursuits and week end gatherings". (COLLAGE)
• collaboration among organizations was mentioned by 2 agencies- "The actual ability to use youth workers with established ties to an area was helpful". (Co-Operation Ireland)

Barriers. Five of the 6 agencies responded to this question. There were four themes which emerged from the barrier section. Additionally, there were three single important ideas. The themes and single important ideas, with the accompanying quotes, include:

• resistance to change was mentioned by 3 agencies- "The Youth, Education and Library Board need more vision and innovation for youth projects". (COLLAGE)
• negative attitudes towards youth were mentioned by 3 agencies- "Youth are seen as a problem not as a resource because during the Troubles, youth were often perpetrators and victims of the violence". (Youth Council of Northern Ireland)
• insufficient proactive collaboration was mentioned by 2 agencies- "Projects are still without collaborative links due to past sectarian issues". (Youth Council of Northern Ireland)
• insufficient time was mentioned by 2 agencies- "There was not enough time for Co-Operation Ireland staff to influence the front line project staff, because we were a second level agent". (Co-Operation Ireland)
• lack of up to date technology in the youth group sector was mentioned once.
• remaining neutral when youth make a recommendation was mentioned once.
• Exclusion of certain groups was mentioned once- "Middle class teens are sent to cross border projects, often missing teens deprived by the Troubles". (COLLAGE)

Intentions for future YAR projects. Two of the six agencies planned to read the CYAR manual and incorporate YAR into their strategic plan for the next round of projects.

Intentions for Participation in an international CYAR conference. All of the agents expressed a desire to participate. Several agencies mentioned EU Peace funds which requird staff participation in international conferences to identify "forward and outward looking projects".

RECCOMENDATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

The Northern Ireland "lessons learned", as seen through the responses of the six reporting agencies, combined with Youth as Resources constructs, can provide the framework for a national commitment (in Northern Ireland, USA, and other CYAR countries) to a youth development approach. This approach would help young people achieve their full potential, especially disenfranchised young people. Additionally, the lessons learned would assist communities, in their struggle to rebuild a sense of community, to change negative attitudes and view youth as a resource.

The momentum and the environment are ripe for moving organizational commitment for youth participation to higher level involvement. In order to propel this momentum, funding opportunities must be maintained by the world community while Northern Ireland and its government grow funding streams of their own.

Training and support for the ethos of youth participation must be included at the policy level. Additionally, rigorous marketing techniques of successful higher level youth participation projects must be developed towards media and towards politicians.

REFERENCESAughey, Arthur and Duncan Morrow, eds., Northern Ireland Politics. London: Longman (1996)

Barton, Brian. A Pocket History of Ulster. Dublin: The O'Brien Press (1996)

Deane, Eamonn, and Carol Rittner, eds. Beyond Hate: Living with Our Differences. Derry: Yes! Publications (1994)

Gilsinan, James F. "The Challenge of Service Learning as a Tool in Social Justice Education." Speech presented at the Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education Conference at Santa Clara University, San Jose, CA (2000)

Green, Rodney. Taking the Initiative: promoting young people's involvement in public decision making in Northern Ireland. London: Carnegie Young People Initiative (2001)

Kretzmann, John P., and John L. McKnight, Building Communities from the Inside Out. Evanston: Northwestern University (1993)

Mitchell, George J. Making Peace. Berkeley: University of California Press (1999)

O'Brien, Maire and Conor Cruise O'Brien. Ireland: A Concise History. New York: Thames and Hudson (1999)

Parker, Tony. May the Lord in His Mercy Be Kind to Belfast. New York: Henry Holt (1993)

Pettigrew, Thomas F., "Intergroup Contact Theory." Annual Review of Psychology 49:65-85 (1988)

Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone. New York: Simon & Schuster (2000)

Van Til, Jon. Final Report: Stakeholder Assessment of Youth as Resources of Central Indiana. (July 2000)