Belfiesta!

I'm a working girl now! I officially started my internship on Monday and I am loving it! I have worked two days now (we had class/seminar today). On Monday morning I took a taxi to the East Belfast Alternatives office where I was met by one of the workers there. She was the only one in the office at the time (there are only two staff who work in the EBA office full-time). She showed me around the office. It is small, but comfortable and got me situated in my desk...yes, I have a desk complete with computer and stapler. Her first task of the day was to meet with one of the young girls that she is working with and I was allowed to tag along. I don't think I have explained yet how Alternatives works so I will give a quick overview. 

Alternatives is an organization that utilizes a community-based restorative justice approach to anti-social behaviour (which here means throwing rocks at homes, petty theft, vandalism, bullying, etc.). There has been a rise in Northern Ireland of the informal justice system. People are still vary wary of the police and other statutory agencies and find that the response time is not good if there is a response at all. Thus, people head down to the local pub when they have a grievance against youth in the community. People know which pubs are still frequented by local paramilitary members. They present their case and request that the paramilitaries take care of it. This can result in a warning, a beating, a shooting (to injure and teach a lesson, not to kill), or exclusion of the offender and their family from the community. Alternatives works through referrals to intervene in this process and offer an alternative to paramilitary violence. Victim, offender, and community are all involved in restoring justice to a situation. Victim and offender both receive separate counseling and mediation until they come together to work out an arrangement that will benefit the victim, offender, and community. The victim is able to receive closure and repayment, the offender is able to see firsthand the way that their actions hurt themselves, the community and others, and the community is bettered. This, in a nutshell, is why Alternatives was formed. Since the 1990s Alternatives has branched out to include prevention programs, mediation training in schools and the Northern Ireland parole office and various other programs and services, including dealing directly with paramilitaries as I will be soon.

So...on Monday I was able to accompany one of the case workers to work with a little girl. This little girl had been kicked out of school for possession. She has also stolen from local shops. She is only 12 years old. We took her to play pool at a local community center and then out for McDonalds. One of the things that Alternatives looks at is the circumstances in the offender's lives that may have led them to commit the crimes that they have taken part in. This girl is in the early stages of her restorative justice program and the emphasis is really on building a relationship of trust and support. It was quite the interesting experience. She is really a sweet girl who just comes from a bad home situation. That is the experience of a lot of the youth who work with Alternatives. After returning from that outing I had a meeting with the three people that I will be working closely with and they kind of "called" which days they wanted me to work with them. It sounds like I will be able to get around to most of the Alternatives offices (they have 5) and will be able to experience a wide variety of their programs. Later in the day on Monday I was able to attend a meeting with the more formal branch of restorative justice in Belfast. They operate under more of a statutory protocol than does Alternatives. Until recently the two groups did not work together, but because of government recognition of Alternatives they are now working together on joint projects. They were very welcoming and informative and I was invited back to visit and learn more anytime. This was pretty much the extent of my first day. I read some literature about the organization and really oriented myself with the office. That is really what the first week is about. I am fairly free to choose my own projects and to work in the directions and the capacities that I choose. I have, however, been delegated the task of designing their website (they don't have one at the moment). I will be compiling the information needed for their website and deciding how it can best be laid out.

On Tuesday I got to work on a little bit of research needed to formulate a layout for the website. I don't have a real strong idea of what to go on so I decided to orient myself more with the organization. I read reports and pamphlets and I also looked at other restorative justice organizations' websites to get an idea about what might be included in an Alternatives website. In the process I found an internship dealing with restorative justice in Minneapolis for the summer that I am going to apply for. I think I should have a pretty good shot at it. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Later in the morning I went out on a home visit with one of the case workers to talk with a parent of a child that might participate in one of our programs. The day was pretty slow for the most part and I filled it with research. However, in the afternoon I had the chance to attend a meeting. This meeting was made up of various organizations in the neighborhood. There were community groups and the housing executive and the Belfast City Council all represented. Basically the group meets to update one another on the various projects that they are working on. They ensure that there is no overlap and they work together to accomplish what the neighborhood needs. I was told that this is fairly rare in Belfast so I was glad to experience the cooperation of the Woodstock neighborhood.

Oh! In other interesting news I experienced the public transportation of Belfast for the first time on Tuesday. In order to get to my internship I have to take a bus into the city center and then another bus into East Belfast. The website is not particularly helpful in planning your routes, but I found out which buses to take from my co-workers. Thus, I knew the bus numbers that I had to take and I found those buses just fine. What I did not know, however, was where to get off of them. It was a big guessing game, but I did alright. I think I should be ok to do it again. I didn't particularly love standing at the bus stop in the cold and the rain, but such is Belfast (I could have it much worse; some people have to walk). It did rain the first two days of our internships, but today was nice and sunny.

Today, as I said before, was our seminar day. We were joined in Belfast by our classmates in Derry. We went first to WAVE Trauma Centre. This is a center that deals with victims of the Troubles. This means that anyone who feels that their life was affected by the Troubles can get whatever help they might need from the center. After that we made our way to the Shankill office of Alternatives. The rest of my group was able to learn a little bit about what we do at Alternatives. It was an interesting day and it was SO GOOD to see the Derry people again! We've really missed them. It always feels like some of our group is missing. I think some of them might be coming to stay and visit with us this weekend. 

It's getting late so I should probably wrap this up. Tomorrow I will be heading out into the schools to work with Alternatives' Peer Mediation program. It should be interesting. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you at home. Talk to you soon.