THEY JUST WANT US OUT OF THEIR AREA: LOCATING THE VOICES OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN HIGH CONFLI

1
THEY JUST WANT US OUT OF THEIR AREA LOCATING
THE VOICES OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN HIGH
CONFLICT COMMUNITIES.

• Dr. Siobhán McAlister, School of Law, QUB
• CHILD CARE RESEARCH FORUM CONFERENCE
• 26 NOVEMBER 2008

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Understanding the Lives of Children Young
People in the Context of Conflict and
Marginalisation

• STAGES
• Preliminary focus groups to inform research (n25
  young people)
• Interviews with adult community representatives
  (n65)
• Interviews and focus groups with children and
  young people aged 8-25 yrs (n196)
• Feedback findings to communities

3
Research Sites

• Deprivation indicators
• Young peoples suggestions
• History of area impact of conflict
• With and without community resources
• Final sample
• One community in each county mix of urban,
  rural, Catholic, Protestant and mixed

4
Pre-Ceasefires

• Impact
• Connection to community
• Clear identity
• Regulation and control
• of behaviour
• knowledge of rules

• Situation
• Closed community lack
• of mobility
• Children and young
• people home at night
• Lack of contact with
• police policing of own
• communities

5
Communities in Transition?

• On the streets in the community, you dont see
  any benefits from the peace process at all.
  Despair is still there (Catholic community)
• There have been changes in Government but not on
  the ground, they dont care whats happening on
  the ground (Protestant community)

6
Post-Ceasefires

• the area has improved in some ways but has
  deteriorated in others, there is more violence
  post-conflict, people dont feel safe in this
  community when they always did in the past.
• Children and young people are disillusioned and
  alienated from community life.
• Policing vacuum lapse in paramilitary
  policing and lack of normal policing
  Increases in crime and ASB

7
Contextualsing Behaviour

• Young people are in
• a vacuum, they were
• told in the past it was
• ok to do certain things
• and now they are told
• it isnt They grew
• up to be something
• but then suddenly it is
• taken away and you
• think where is your
• place?

8
Young People and the Peace Process

• Forgotten element in the peace process
• Nothing explained much expected
• Pulled in opposing directions politicians and
  hardliners
• Struggle to reclaim/find identity
• Feared and shunned because of behaviour.

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Responses to Children Young People

• Focus on BEHAVIOUR
• Children young people not consulted
• Short-term reactive programmes undermine
  long-term sustained work
• RESULT
• Children young people blamed for the failure
  of programmes further exclusion

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How Others See Us

• They adults try to avoid you an they feel
  threatened just if we walk up to them or talk to
  them.
• if were standin on the streets with hoodies
  and all they think were goin to batter auld
  women
• Antisocial behaviour is congregatin in a group.
  Just bein together with your pals is targeted
  as antisocial. You want to tell them police and
  adults that youre bein social, not antisocial.
  They wouldnt get it.

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Impact of Negative Perceptions and Treatment

• It just gets to you all the time, undermines
  you. Its feelings of insecurity that leads to
  suicide
• Youre gonna be bad if youre expected to be
  bad
• It just makes us do more if they have a name
  they may as well live up to it.

12
Disconnected From Communities?

• Attachment to area
• Concerns similar to adults
• They pick the negative things but we do positive
  things but they never know about it.
• They dont care, not listened to, easier to
  blame than to talk.

13
Participation? Unheard Voices

• Its ok for them. Adults speak for themselves
  and can speak for themselves. They have their
  community meetings and were left out
• Its not fair they have meeting about us but
  were not allowed to be there to defend
  ourselves

14
Impact Nobody cares

• How do you think? You feel like youll get
  nowhere in life. That nobody cares and they
  dont. People arent bothered with us, they just
  want us out of their area but its our area as
  well. Its not their place, weve been reared
  here too.
• Disrespected, unwanted, excluded,
  unappreciated, a waste of space
•