What a year 2009 was!  Well settled in our new offices, we saw a year of frenetic activity, some staff changes, and some solid steps toward making Public Achievement a more sustainable organisation and model.  It seems that the reputation of our work grows steadily, and we have had a host of new partnerships develop with a wide range of groups, communities and agencies.

The early part of the year saw a lot of consolidation of the work of the previous year, and in particular the publication of our coach manual and international resource, both of which were launched at QUB on 27 April as part of 'Community Relations Week' (both available for download).  Our Action Research Officer - Laura McFall - moved on to take up a new post with the Children's Commissioner - though she retains a strong interest in our work, and we have plans for some work together this year.

Deborah (Debs) Irwin replaced Laura in the new role of "Youth Work Manager", and we also saw a turnover in the Civic Educator team who run the Away from Violence project.  This project and its sister - 'Breaking the Cycle' project have seen significant progress over the year, and the fruits of much of this work will be seen early in 2010.  There is clearly a strong legacy of violence in many of our communities across Northern Ireland and it has a debilitating impact on the lives of young people living in tough social realities.

In June we finally took delivery of the wonderful 'WIMPSmobile' - our mobile unit that allows us to make films with young people in their communities anywhere in Northern Ireland.  This has given the project greater reach and visibility - and as well as the vehicle we have a stack of new computer and video equipment and software that allows us to bring a high specification service to any group.  We're even experimenting with a new form of mobile broadband - called iBurst - in the Belfast area.

The summer was far from quiet - and started with a film presentation to the Northern Ireland Policing Board as part of their ongoing enquiry into young people, policing and human rights.  We interviewed many of the young people we work with about their experiences and views of policing.  This has led directly to a larger scale project which will report soon - carried out through our new trading arm, 'Achieve Enterprises' - in which we will interview more than 200 young people from tough realities about their ideas and experiences.  We are also collaborating with the Institute for Conflict Research on a research strand to the project which updates earlier research they did on young people and policing.  For me, whilst there have been enormous advances in policing since the implementation of the Patten Commission report of 1999, the relationship between young people and the police remains a key issue which should and must be addressed - but which could also contribute significantly to overall improvements in policing, in the civic life of communities and in the life experiences of many young people.

August saw our first 'Away from Violence' summer youth camp at Corrymeela.  For many of the young people involved, this was their first experience of cross-community engagement, and it had a profound impact on the groups - who organised their own visits to each other's communities following the residential.  The 'Civic Youth Work' methodology creates a shared vocabulary for the young people involved in the project - and normalises the handling of difficult and controversial issues.

In September, we had a delegation of volunteer youth workers visit from the Lebanese Organisation for Studies and Training (LOST).  This group from the Bakaar Valley were highly motivated trainees and in addition to doing accredited training, they visited several of our groups as well as the north coast and Derry.  September also saw the start of some work on community relations with the 'Sliabh Beagh Partnership' in rural Fermanagh/Tyrone/Monaghan.  We are doing two projects - one with teenagers from the area who are making a film together, and the other with adults working with local community organisations.

The year ended at the same pace that it began.  We started a new project on coach training with former combatants - people who want to change their leadership role and relationship with young people in their communities.  We started work on a new project for the Northern Ireland Youth Forum looking at young people's political heritage.  A project we have been working on developing for several years with the Fire Services in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic - 'Driving Change' - was finally awarded funded by the EU.  A team of two staff and two young people headed off to South Africa to take part in Bush Radio's 'Media Kidocracy Konference' and to build stronger partnerships between our Away from Violence project and theirs.  If you haven't read it, you should check out their blog from the visit.  We also launched the new WIMPS 'Peace Channel' - the first thematic channel on the site - with four films created by groups living in interfaces in north and west Belfast.

There were also a couple of awards at the end of the year.  Four girls from the 'WIMPS Crew' won a UK wide competition to join the Attorney General's youth network.  Baroness Scotland visited their school with the Justice Minister, Paul Goggins - and then the girls travelled to London to meet the Attorney General and the other young people involved in the network at the House of Lords.

Public Achievement was given an award from the political blogsite, Slugger O'Toole.  The award was for participation and involvement, and we were nominated by a politician - Basil McCrea MLA.  The WIMPS team worked at the awards, and interviewed more than 50 MLAs, journalists and others in the run-up to the second annual awards.  This was a great way to finish the year off!

So what of 2010?

The year will not be without its challenges - the funding environment for charities in Northern Ireland is bleak in the face of the scaling down of the EU Peace Programme and the spend-down of initiatives such a the International Fund for Ireland and the giant Atlantic Philanthropies.  We should expect major cuts in government funding - particularly post general election - and a continued absence of strategy from the Executive particularly in areas such as community relations.  Even where there is policy - such as the 10 Year Strategy for Children and Young People - the policy is made limp by the lack of detail and the lack of dedicated funding strands to follow it.

Yet looking forward, I feel both positive and optimistic.  Public Achievement is currently generating almost one third of its income - and we should be able to build on this (fairly recent) success over the coming year.  We also need to invest in the building and managing of a donor base - so if your New Year's resolutions include doing more for charity - we'd love to hear from you!  It is vital that we secure more grant funding in the short-term - particularly to support WIMPS, our training activities in communities, and before the end of 2010 to extend our vital 'Away from Violence' project.

Technically our 10th anniversary passed quietly a couple of months back.  Public Achievement became a registered company at the end of 1999.  However 2000 saw the first full year of activity - and after a pilot phase, the organisation became more fully structured in 2003.  So we will use 2010 to celebrate a decade of activity.  There will be a series of key events, including a launch of our policing film and research; the launch and tour of an exhibition created by young people in four communities through the 'Away from Violence' project, and a 'Participation Summit' involving young people from across Northern Ireland in the summer.

We intend to re-design the WIMPS website - creating a new interface with users that takes advantage of the latest in social networking and mobile technologies.  We also intend to start internationalising WIMPS and creating multi-lingual content.  We are expecting a major announcement on the creation of a Northern Ireland Youth Assembly within weeks (something we have campaigned on for more than two years), and we will continue to campaign on other key issues affecting young people through the site (including lowering the voting age, and creating a shared society).

Having successfully piloted the 'Away from Violence' and 'Breaking the Cycle' projects, we need to embed the learning from these projects into more communities through partnership with local groups and agencies.  We also need to more strongly evidence the benefits of this work - and the young people's exhibitions will be an important start to this process.  The legacy of four decades of political violence has left a deep impact on individuals, families and communities.  Combined with poverty and the deep segregation of our society it serves to compound the multiple problems faced by young people living in tough social realities.  Yet Northern Ireland is still better placed than anywhere else on the planet to successfully and substantially address these issues - and to change the outcomes for future generations of young people.

The Driving Change project will see the first major collaboration between Public Achievement and a public body.  The project is focussed on road safety in cross-border communities, and we will be training volunteers within the fire service and local communities to work with young drivers and their peers on projects that seek to change the driving habits of young people in the 17 - 25 age group - particularly young men.  This is a significant opportunity to mainstream our 'Civic Youth Work' model into the culture and practice of a public organisation.



Our work on policing and on training with former combatants will develop through the year - I hope into more significant ongoing initiatives.  These are two key areas where Public Achievement has a significant contribution to make.

A major disappointment in 2009 was the decision of SEUPB not to support a significant international project - 'Moving Away from Violence'.  Starting this month, we will begin planning to deliver this project in a different format, building on the success of our previous 'Youth Work in Contested Spaces' projects and our strong international networks with youth workers in conflict regions around the world.  By the end of the year I hope we will have in place a strong strategy to move this work forward with accompanying resources and partnerships.