Planned Interventions Programme 2023/24
The Planned Interventions Programme 2023/24 are currently closed. Awards are subject to budget availability.
About the programme
The Programme is delivered annually as part of the Executive’s wider ‘Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC)’ Strategy. It provides funding for community activity to:
- Divert young people from anti-social and potentially criminal behaviour.
- Address heightened inter and intra community tension around interfaces (including not only physical peace walls, but anywhere there is a potential for community tensions to arise).
The Planned Interventions Programme aims to engage the ‘most at risk’ young people between the ages of 10 to 25 years in positive experiences and opportunities, as a diversion from involvement in sectarian activities, civil disorder or criminal behaviour.
Projects are tasked with operating at key times, when the likelihood of social unrest is high, or tensions between communities are heightened.
The Programme also seeks to develop the capacity of individuals and groups of children and young people to meaningfully take part in structured cross community engagement and relationship building programmes, such as T:BUC Camps.
The main outcomes of the Planned Interventions Programme are to:
- Reduce the number of crime and antisocial behaviour incidents in the areas where the young people live
- Reduce the number of young people engaging in risk taking behaviours
- Increase the % of young people who think favourably about young people in the other community.
Planned Interventions 2022/23
77 projects have been completed under the 2022/23 Programme benefiting 1459 young people.
A survey of participants on the 2022/23 Programme indicated:
- 92.7% felt that they had improved self-confidence through participation.
- 84.3% of participants indicated they now feel more favourably about young people from other religious/community backgrounds.
- 95.2% of young people said that due to the impact of their projects, they were less likely to be involved in negative behaviour.
2021/22 Planned Interventions Programme
108 projects were funded in 2021/22 c. 1300 young people engaged.
A Survey of participants of the 2021/22 Programme indicated that:
- 79.6% of participants reported that they felt more favourable towards people from a different religious/community background.
- 96.3% of young people said that due to the impact of their projects, they were less likely to be involved in negative behaviour.
- 75.4% felt more favourable towards those from a different ethnic minority background.
2020/21 Planned Interventions Programme
Launched in June 2020, 91 projects were delivered under the 2020/21 Programme benefitting c. 1,135 participants.
To mitigate the impacts of the Covid pandemic measures were implemented to assist groups in providing online interventions and engagement. These included restricting numbers of participants in individual projects, additional funding for staff and provision to procure resources to support an online programme.
A survey of participants on the 2020/21 Programme indicated:
- 99.7% felt that they had improved self-confidence and developed new skills through participation.
- 74% of participants indicated they now feel more favourably about young people from other community backgrounds.
This is a clear indication of the positive outcomes achieved by the Programme.
A selection of short articles on groups that delivered Planned Interventions in 2020/21 and 2021/22 can be viewed via the link below:
A list of the funding awarded for the Planned Interventions Programme 2020/21 will be made available shortly.
2019/20 Planned Interventions Programme
93 programmes completed during the summer of 2019 (13 of which were funded by the Department of Justice’s Tackling Paramilitary Programme) benefiting c. 4,200 participants.
A Survey of participants of the 2019/20 Programme indicated that:
- 81.5% of participants reported that they had a positive attitudinal change towards people from a different religious/community background.
- 78.6% felt they had developed a more positive attitudinal change to those from a different ethnic minority background.
A list of the funding awarded for the Planned Interventions Programme 2019/20 can be found at the following link: Planned Interventions funding – Education Authority website
2018/19 Planned Interventions Programme
74 projects were completed during the July/August summer period to the benefit of almost 5,000 participants. The evaluation of the Programme found that:
- Almost 97% of participants who started the programme completed, showing a very high rate of engagement.
- Almost two thirds of participants highlighted they felt more favourable about young people from a different community background as a result of their participation and learning in their programmes.
- A majority of participants (61.8%) were identified as being diverted away from crime and anti-social behavioural incidents.
- A significant number of participants (62.5%) experienced a reduction in risk taking behaviours. These included smoking, drug and alcohol misuse and violence.
Participants were involved in positive experiences which included;
- A focus on new opportunities and learning, involved in diversionary activities and developmental work,
- learning more about their community and the consequences of crime and antisocial behaviour and the impacts their behaviour has within the community and how they are perceived as a result.
- learning about the consequences of these behaviours, the impact on themselves and others and became more informed on these issues.
A list of the funding awarded for the Planned Interventions Programme 2018/19 can be found at the link below: