We Must Dissent: A Framework for Community Renewal

We Must Dissent: A Framework for Community Renewal was launched on the 24th of January 2019. The report built upon the community survey carried out between October 2017 and January 2018. After the survey results were returned and analyzed, a briefing was held in the Market Community Centre at which the results were shared with residents.

This was followed by a series of workshops at which residents discussed the issues in depth and tentatively scoped out possible solutions and the Human Rights Indicators by which they would measure progress against the six key areas the survey identified. These were:

Overdevelopment Road Safety Housing
Health

Education Work

The report’s launch was well attended by residents, statutory and political representatives, as well as others from the third sector, media, and education. The launch was addressed by Prof. Colin Harvey (QUB) and the then Mayor of Belfast, Deirdre Hargey.

Since the report was launched there has been intense work carried out on the six HRIs: the Save the Market Campaign continues to halt overdevelopment; new and refreshed yellow lines have made the school and its surroundings safer; housing on the Gasworks site for 94 new homes has been secured and is nearing the final stages

of planning; new health programs have been delivered and more are planned; we have formed a strategic partnership with Queen’s University; and between July 2019 and June 2020 74 residents completed employability training to the value of £31,689.40, equating to 3% of residents, or 10% of households (and over 250 residents over the last few years). We are now planning to roll out a series of focused engagements on the six HRIs, via surveys, workshops, and public meetings as and when it is safe to do so.

50 years ago the Market was transformed, for the worse, beyond recognition. It is about to be transformed again. Residents need to be alert, engaged, and active to make sure this time it is for the betterment of the community. There is no individual solution to the collective problems we face as a community, but over the past 5 years, we have shown that our resident-led, evidence-based and activist-driven campaigns can win. We must continue to get active, get educated, and get organized. If you would like to play your part in rebuilding our community please text your full name and your area of interest (overdevelopment, road safety, housing, health, education, work) to 07934726239.