Unique cross-community and cross-border project launched by Gerry Kelly

A unique project aimed at creating meaningful engagement between communities and policing was launched by North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly last week.
Communities and Policing in Transition Programme (CAPT), is a cross-community and cross-border project which will target interface and disadvantaged areas in Belfast and Derry City Council areas, as well as the Tyrone and Donegal border region.
It will develop joint action plans and strategies, agreed between communities and the police, to address the changing nature of violence and crime, including sectarian and racist hate crime.
The project was organised by Intercomm which was came as a direct response to grassroots community concerns about inter-community conflict and social deprivation in North Belfast.
"The Communities and Policing in Transition project aims to make a real difference to people’s lives in meaningful and sustainable ways,” said Gerry Kelly at the launch of the project in the Northern Assembly.
“This is a unique and innovate community-driven programme targeting rural, urban and cross border areas tackling issues such as perceptions of policing, sectarianism, racism, domestic violence and the implications of a devolved criminal justice system.
“These are not issues that can be dealt with by a short term, ad hoc approach. It requires a great deal of knowledge about the issues affecting local communities as well as leadership and buy-in from local communities.
“Progress and movement must come from within the communities themselves, through dialogue, mutual understanding and accommodation,” said the Republican representative.
“The aims of this project reflect many of the aims of the Executive and chime well with that strategic direction. We are determined that everyone in our society should have the opportunity to live in a fair and equal society, which is at ease with itself and where everyone can share and enjoy a better quality of life.”