Family and Community Engagement Project (FACE)

The Family and Community Engagement Project (FACE) project address issues of separation, exclusion and difference through a programme of engagement, integration, social inclusion and building positive relations at a local level between services family members and neighbouring communities.

The FACE project uses an interactive, inter-generational and experiential approach of area-based engagement and managed contact involving services family members and the local community. The first project was based within the Antrim/Aldergrove area, while the second was based around the Ballykinler/North Down area and the third involved service families on the Thiepvel base and the local community.

The project is supported by the European Union’s PEACE III Programme as awarded by councils in the three localities.

Co-operation Ireland and the Army Welfare Service are hoping to continue their joint collaborative development work this year. The partnership involving Co-operation Ireland and the Army Welfare Service (AWS), will further develop and build relationships within local communities in Northern Ireland and those from the services'/forces families/community stationed and resident here. The overall aim of the FACE programme is to reconcile the services’ families based in locations throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with the neighbouring communities and traditions within Ireland.

Services’ families, as we have learned through our project work, are excluded and marginalised from economic, social and civil networks as a result of problems stemming from fears for personal security, sectarianism and lack of contact with local communities. There is also a considerable degree of misunderstanding of the role of those based here, which is linked to the legacy of the Troubles. Many families living on the four bases here are from ethnic minority, and commonwealth, backgrounds and are further marginalised by negative attitudes towards their ethnicity.

We have received support from the Prime Minister to develop this area of work in 2012.