Belfast city councillors have approved a plan on how to spend £600,000 of UK Government funding aimed at heading off the threat of a repeat of the anti-immigrant violence in the city last summer.
The city is the only one outside of England to receive funding under London’s Community Recovery Fund aimed at promoting integration and supporting anti racism projects.
Early in August, after an anti-immigration group and a larger anti-racist counter rally converged outside city hall, numbers from the anti-immigration group broke away from the city centre and moved into south Belfast, where individuals and businesses were attacked.
The events followed a mass stabbing in which three children were killed in Southport in England.
Police managed to stop the far-right aggressors reaching the Belfast Islamic Centre on University Road but many were allowed to reach Botanic Avenue, Ormeau Road, and the Holyland area, where there were violent scenes, businesses damaged and racist chanting.
Council officers outlined their plan to the Belfast Council Strategic Policy and Resources Committee main monthly meeting. It was approved by the committee.
The largest block accounts for £330,000, directed towards community projects aimed towards reduction in anti-Muslim hate, and increased “integration, orientation, and inclusion.”
Of this, £160,000 will be focused on proposals from community organisations in four areas of Belfast, Sandy Row/Donegal Road, Woodvale, Connswater and Greater Falls.
The remaining £170,000 under this block will support projects led by constituted community organisations across Belfast up to a value of £20,000, through an open call, that support a “proactive approach to integration and inclusion” of the migrant population.
Other blocks include £35,000 aimed specifically towards a reduction in anti-Muslim hate, involving projects for teachers, youth practitioners and community leaders to work with young people and adults to “prevent the threats from new and evolving harmful ideologies, that sow division, and spread hate and intolerance.”
Another directs £30,000 to enable council owned community centres and eight independent community centres to “reduce the risk of further disorder in the future” by making “Centres of Sanctuary” to connect with asylum seekers, refugees and the BAME community.
Some £35,000 will go towards programmes that “develop a resource that clearly presents the facts in relation to migration, and the process of immigration.” £20,000 will go towards the “Schools of Sanctuary” programme already up and running in the city.
A further £20,000 will go to restore the physical environment back to its original form pre–August Riots, and £20,000 will go towards “drop-in clinics” in the areas where businesses have suffered in the context of hate crime and racist attacks.
Lastly, £40,000 will go towards a Wider University and Lower Ormeau Support Programme which will be designed for migrant support.