A university study has revealed the positive impact of a cross community group that engages youth work across North and West Belfast.
R-CITY is a wide-reaching initiative that is committed to young people living in areas facing issues of conflict, mental health, gang culture, educational disadvantage and lack of aspirations that started as an idea to develop leadership skills and opportunities.
An evaluation report carried out by Trinity College Dublin highlighted the "unbelievable impact" that the organisation has not only on the participants but their wider communities and families.
Read more: Belfast football club on reaching out across interface for 11 years
The evaluation, completed by Eileen Gricuk from Trinity College, looked into the outcomes of R-CITY's Leadership Programme which is a pathway of learning and development to nurture the young people involved so that they can reach their full potential.
Some of the key findings from the report showed that 44 per cent of the 59 participants who responded to the survey were pursuing or had completed university education, with development of new knowledge and skills noted as one of the most highly rated leadership skill indicators.
97 per cent of respondents also said that after R-CITY, they valued knowing people from a different background while 98 per cent stay in touch with friends of a different background.
A 21-year-old male who was involved in the evaluation focus group said: "R-CITY gave me the opportunity to engage with people from different cultures which helped with changing my perceptions of the other community and enriched my friendship circle which will stay with me for life."
Another key aspect Eileen looked at in the study was how learning from the programme was being applied within the participants' immediate family and wider community.
One respondent said: "Being involved in R-CITY had kind of taught me new ways to deal with things - if I've got an issue, you don't just fly off the handle and take it out on everybody in the house. You sit down and talk about it and it's given me ways to actually socialise with people and problem solve, work things right and make decisions."
The evaluation showed that 85 per cent of respondents reported engagement in community projects after leaving R-CITY while 88 per cent declared better awareness of community projects and collaboration.
Pierce McConnell, Programme Manager at R-CITY, explained how the report perfectly summarised the importance of the work that they do in giving young people lifeskills they can carry throughout their lives.
Speaking to Belfast Live, he said: "For so long, we have wanted to have an evaluation done of our work to show the impact of what we do because more often than not, programmes find it hard to demonstrate the impact that they have on young people.
"We wanted to have something that was new and modern to show exactly who we are and what sort of work we do and we've had a partnership with Trinity for about four or five years and together with the academic background and our practical side of things that we could make some sort of report.
"Eileen was absolutely amazing and she pulled together a year on year impact to show the progression that our programme has had - we were established in 2013 so in terms of youth work organisations, we are still relatively new."
Pierce continued: "We reflected in terms of where we were when we first initially came onto the programme, our progression through the programme and where we are now to show the learning and development that this R-CITY programme had on different aspects of our lives.
"I was part of the findings as well because I came through the programme as a young person.
"It was people from all different backgrounds who got involved in the focus groups and interviews and that are from all different livings and working in a number of different professions to show that it isn't just young people who want to be youth workers benefiting."
Read more: Community group to bring outdoor festival back to Newtownabbey for second year
Read more: Watch as Shankill Road young people surprise unsung heroes in the community
To get the latest breaking news straight to your inbox, sign up to our free newsletter.
