About The Junction

Who we are:

The Junction was originally a Centre, set up by community relations practitioners in March 2000, to consolidate and strengthen community relations work. The Centre provided a space for activities that fed into the development of relationships, better understanding, and mutual respect. The Junction has a local, regional, national and international remit.

As part of the DiverseCity Community Partnership, the Centre has been rebuilt. The work of the Junction continues on as a community education and training for peace building organisation, allowing people to connect critically and grow organically in pace with the development of a new civic society in Northern Ireland.  The Junction seeks to inform and validate approaches, policy and practice that value people and empower them to live with their differences.

The objectives of the Junction are to provide:

  • Human resources by way of expertise, advice, training and support
  • Clearing house of good models of practice, knowledge, and insights on approaches and methods
  • Commitment to improved community relations work through proactive methods which both complement existing work and initiate new work
  • Promotion of functional relationships between the communities which encourage interdependency
  • Promotion of individual development
  • Empower individuals to make a difference within their own community
  • Develop training and education resources on conflict resolution and peace building

Activities and Services:

The ethos on which much of the work is based derives from Community Development and Community Relations’ principles.  These tailor the activities of the Junction and focus on the primary values of moral, civic, social and political education and evaluation.  The Centre is non-prescriptive and avoids preconceived notions about ‘correct’ solutions.

The Junction acts as an ‘access point’ and ‘gatekeeper’ guiding, resourcing and supporting individuals and organisations in community relations work including peace-building; cultural education; anti-sectarianism; overcoming structural sectarianism; dealing with the past, and working with the most vulnerable in society such as victims of the conflict.  The influencing of policy at the local, regional, national and international levels are among its core functions.

The Junction has set up and oversees the management of a number of specific projects, responding to particular needs and working within a timeframe. Two major projects currently within the Junction are:

Liberation From Patriarchy for Gender Justice – Addressing the causes of, and resulting damage of patriarchy

Ethical and Shared Remembering – Commemoration in a New Context – Remembering a Decade of Change and Violence 1912-1922

Publishing

The Junction is a registered publisher and has produced a collection of books, DVD’s and resources. We will continue adding to this collection in the future.

Liberation From Patriarchy for Gender Justice

This training programme on Liberation from Patriarchy for Gender Justice will critique patriarchy, explore its violent consequences and practices, and suggest a more liberating alternative for all humans beyond patriarchy.

The intention is to expose the exclusive thinking and actions, systems and structures, that patriarchy pervades in Northern Ireland and that prevent the celebration and flourishing of real diversity, and the healing of divisive attitudes and practices, which reinforce prejudice, hate and intolerance.

Ethical & Shared Remembering

The events of 1912-1922 provided a decade of enormous change in Ireland leaving a legacy for good and ill. The events shaped the rest of the 20th century and still cast a long shadow into the 21st century. The Ulster Covenant and the Easter Proclamation, in ways a mirror of each other, became foundational documents of two states in Ireland after 1921. Everything had changed by 1922, not least because of the Great War, but the decade was also a decade of intense and often brutal, sectarian violence. The legacy of violence remained and erupted again in Northern Ireland for a further 35 years at the end of the 20th century.

Towards Understanding & Healing

Towards Understanding and Healing is a project that focuses on the needs of the individual by creating a space for reflection and recognition of individual experience and supporting individuals to share their stories. Because Northern Ireland is the way that it is, no one person can tell the story and this project emphasises the need… Continue reading Towards Understanding & Healing