WINTER 2008Karen Paarz
Seaville MMIn December 2002 I received a grant from Salem Quarterly Meeting to conduct a peace and reconciliation project in Northern Ireland. The project, modeled on the Man2Man Philadelphia Project sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control, was under the care of Seaville Monthly Meeting.
The targeted population in the Man2Man Northern Ireland Project were Protestant and Catholic marginalized, antisocial adolescent males of Derry living in Republican and Loyalist communities. The teens, aged 15 to 17, committed offenses such as burglary and car theft in their own communities. The offending youth often received punishment beatings by informal police systems (paramilitaries). Informal police systems from the 1970s to early 2000 were the only source of trusted policing in many of the Catholic communities, and were also active in Protestant communities. Man2Man NI offered non-violent options to the informal community policing systems—options steeped in Quaker principles of peace, harmony, equality, and justice.
A summary of the services included:
- Phase 1
- Life Skills Development component.
- Phase 2
- Reparative Justice and Active Community Citizenship projects, which addressed both the offender and the victim. Phase 2 provided a venue to hold the offender accountable while establishing a pathway for him to regain a meaningful role in his community.
- Phase 3
- Job Shadowing and Cultural Diversity activities intended to be hosted in the Philadelphia region, with a four-week residential program at Pendle Hill. The House of Umoja, a residential service for Philadelphia African American adolescent males, agreed to cosponsor the Second International Youth Conference and Youth Exchange Program for African American, Quaker, and Northern Ireland youth.
- Phase 4
- Upon returning to Derry, participants were scheduled to return to school or to job training, and receive assistance with preparation for their future careers.
To enable graduates to remain connected, they were to be invited to cofacilitate the program in the second year, to hold reunions with advisory group members, and to become members of the advisory group. Transatlantic university interns were also scheduled to participate in the program as counsellors and team leaders.
In March 2003, I travelled back to the City of Derry, in the County of Londonderry, with five members of the Rutgers University Study Tour, under the care of Seaville Meeting. The team conducted 29 surveys with adolescent males, parents, community residents, agency directors, youth workers, university interns, advisory group members, probation officers, spokespersons for paramilitary informal policing units, school counsellors, and clergy. There were 12 themes which emerged from the interviews:
- “What is the real reason for conducting the Man2Man Program key informant interviews?”
- Both sides felt that the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the probation department, and the judicial system favored the other side.
- There was a relationship between socioeconomic status and personal experience with The Troubles. The lower classes suffered the most.
- Protestants experienced fewer problems with adolescent male antisocial behavior. However, working-class Protestant and Catholic respondents were more apt to know of and describe victimization from antisocial behavior.
- Adolescent antisocial behavior was perceived as a function of illiteracy, decreased communication skills, hopelessness, and feelings of disengagement.
- All respondents agreed that the punishment beatings must end, and that the beatings were ineffective. However, no one could specifically prescribe what action could or should replace the punishment beatings.
- The formal Police Service of Northern Ireland is perceived as “soft” compared to the informal paramilitary community policing systems.
- Respondents spoke hopefully about developing new partnerships between formal police, the judiciary, and the informal community policing systems.
- There is a correlation between age and confidence in the belief that a pluralistic society can be developed, with younger citizens holding more confidence.
- Both sides feel the term “restorative justice” is offensive because Community Restorative Justice Ireland, a Sinn Fein organization, has played a part in mediation for offenders and victims and in administering rough justice.
- The term “community service” is perceived as a punishment concept. The term “active community citizenship project” was offered, since both Protestants and Catholics can agree that active community citizenship is a positive outcome.
- Most respondents had positive feelings towards Quakers and the United States of America. Quakers are remembered for their help during the famine, and as antiwar pacifists. Additionally, former President Bill Clinton is considered an esteemed citizen of the USA.
The information gleaned from the key informant interviews was then integrated into the Man2Man NI Proposal. The proposal was submitted to the European Committee of the Community Relations Council located in Belfast, NI. Members discussed this application and reviewed all materials submitted in relation to the proposal. Unfortunately, the committee decided that Man2Man NI did not align with Measure 2:1, European Union Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland.
Disappointed? Yes. Without options? No. The next sections briefly describe the options.
Presentations at several venues were able to disseminate the project. Venues included:
- In 2003, Swarthmore Monthly Meeting invited Professor Jon Van Til, the students who conducted the key informant interviews, and me, to present Man2Man NI.
- The reports from key informant interviews were posted on the Rutgers University website.
- An informal report was made to Unionist and Republican informal groups in Derry.
In 2005, the Rutgers University Study Tour once again visited Derry. A descriptive study was conducted with Derry youth who were members of the Derry City Shadow Council. The teens were asked to respond to issues in the Post Troubles era. The topics included Man2Man NI concepts: social justice, civic participation, progress in cross community relations; and aspirations for Derry, Northern Ireland, and the Border Counties. The teens’ responses included:
- A strong desire to move forward, to solve the problems of the day, problems normal to all communities, such as transportation, schools, and jobs.
- They wanted the politicians who were elected to lead their city to economic and social achievement, and to stop postwar mentality and the bickering, and to become proactive in the realities of community life.
- All participants regarded the vote and the ballot and active citizenship as a clear path to success in restoring peace to NI.
The culmination of all Man2Man NI research became the basis for the chapter I wrote in Professor Van Til’s book Breaching Derry’s Walls. The text has become a component of curriculum at Rutgers University and at Swarthmore College.
I have received national and international requests for more information about the Man2Man NI project. I also used the Man2Man NI proposal experience tangentially in South Africa.
Nationally, I have had dialogue with John Woolman College of Equity- Restorative Justice Peacemaking and Conflict Transformation. Internationally, I have had dialogue with Professor/Dr. Karmit Zysman from the Balkan Sunflowers Youth, Culture and Sport Centre in Pristina, Kosovo. A tangential by product of Man2Man NI is associated with my volunteer work at the International Center for Eyecare Education, a South African organization that provides eyecare to rural and urban poor of Sub Saharan Africa. The research and proposal writing skills from creating a 75-page European Union proposal enabled me to write a successful proposal that yielded 1.5 million Euro for the International Center for Eyecare Education. They are currently building a college of optometry in Mozambique to provide human resources, educating optometrists and optometry assistants, to rural and urban people without access to eyecare who are suffering diminished vision and near blindness.
Thank you for all of your assistance, both financial and spiritual. We have worked together to bring peace, social justice and love to people around the world. If you have any questions or comments, please send them along to me. I welcome your input.
Karen welcomes questions or comments from Friends in Salem Quarter. She may be reached at paarzkatyahoo.com. —ED.
RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
Last modified:
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 04:02 PM
