Dawn Beck and Friends Forever programme

I work as a part-time youth leader at St Comgalls Parish
Youth Centre in Bangor. We have been involved with a
programme called Friends Forever which takes groups of 10
young people with both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds to
the US each year to promote cross community engagement in
NI.
I led the group last year with Geoff Phillips from North Down
YMCA. We are hoping to keep the programme alive locally by
having activities between our 2 clubs on a regular basis. My
youth club is predominantly catholic based (although I myself
am a protestant!) while Geoff's is more protestant based. We
feel this is a good way for the young people in our area to
meet each other and development understanding of each others
cultures and beliefs. It is our hope that such actions will
promote better understanding between the 2 communities
locally. My work with the Friends Forever programme showed me
that there is still a big need to bring young people together
locally.