East Belfast Community Development Agency

The current group of volunteers held their meeting at Peninsula Health Living Centre café on 1^st December before joining a large crowd for their Annual General Meeting.  Thanks to the generous support of Belfast City Council Community Chest who contributed to a Christmas lunch it was a great way to end the year and thank the volunteers.

The agenda for lay workers meetings are always very varied and provide opportunities for volunteers to help out at events where they take on various roles and learn about information they can pass onto individuals and groups in their community.  This meeting was no different and the group discussed Ballybeen Cultural Event sponsored by Lisburn/Castlereagh Councils, the Well Event at Willowfield Parish Church, Touch Lamps provided by Belfast City Council, Wise Men of the East Network networking darts event and winter emergency advice clinics.

A lot of information was shared by Peninsula HLC about their own volunteers and the work of their charitable company and Enterprise Company.  The South Eastern Health Trust Director of Services explained that there was an expected shift in emphasis from expenditure on services into health improvement.  And community health initiatives were ideally placed to take on this role.  He explained that 50% of health funding goes to 5% of the population many of whom suffer smoking related illnesses.  He highlighted a 7 step action plan for the community that included; Energy, Vision, Listen, Partnership, Momentum, Action and Movement which was very enlightening.

The LHIW network is a small but dynamic group, involved with environmental projects such as gardening, physical activity such as fishing and cycling, meeting and greeting at the men's clinics, administrators at health fairs and organisers of health events.  A busy new year ahead will seek to build on the progress made during 2011 particularly around physical activity.  And the group looks forward to sharing information with others around the Theme of Health Improvement, with a monthly schedule of meetings in 2012 already planned.

For more information contact Alan Houston at EBCDA tel. 90451512 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

A follow up fun event, after the Wise Men’s open meeting at the Belfast Barge, was thought to be worth a try to provide a networking meeting with a difference.  Supporting a friendly darts match at the Longfellow Bar were men's groups from Ballybeen, Beersbridge Road, Tullycarnet, Short Strand, Willowfield and Cregagh.  This meet up was established to offer men a comfortable venue to talk to other men about issues their group is facing and to share information and support with each other. The Manager of the Bar provided outstanding generous support and refreshments were provided by Short Strand Community Centre.

There was a great Christmas atmosphere about the place and enough expertise within the group to organise a pair’s draw with all eighteen men registered taking part both as players and scorers. There was much good humour about finishing on a double from the oldest member a mere 91 years of age to the youngest a sprightly 55.  The eventual winning pair were David and John from the Tullycarnet Wisecrackers and runners up Jim from Cregagh and Colin from Ravenhill Road. A number of worthwhile discussions took place that identified resources to help recruit more men into groups, possible joint ventures and visits to other men's groups.   The Wise Men of the East Network will be going into their tenth year in 2012 which is quite an achievement and well worth celebrating.

For more information contact; Alan Houston Health Development Worker EBCDA, 90451512 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Brief intervention training in recent years have been directed toward providing health care professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively counsel patients about stopping smoking. However because of increased pressure of work the opportunity doesn’t often arise.  Therefore ‘Brief Intervention Training’ was provided to EBCDA community health workers and lay health volunteers to help widen out the capacity of the sector to support stop smoking conversations with the hard to reach community.  Paul O’Kane of Belfast Trust Health Improvement Department provided this training and used his experience of being based at Belfast City Hospital to deliver an interactive session using handsets and handouts with information and guidance.  The stopping process requires only a few minutes during the course of an interaction. Many things can motivate an individual to quit smoking and events in the community provide a key “window of opportunity” Training highlighted that the conversation to explore this topic is best initiated by asking the person to talk about his or her current state of health.  It was emphasised that for most people, general statements like “smoking is bad for you” or “smoking will kill you” are less effective and may come across as nagging. Therefore, the educational component of this training focused on reviewing people’s past quit attempts and examining what type of behaviour change techniques did the person use in the past? how did the person use the smoking-cessation medication of choice? if the person did not make any behaviour changes or use a medication, why not?  Fortunately there is a multitude of referral sources available to tobacco users but this short training course helped to improve knowledge and skills level of participants.

For more information contact Alan on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 9045 1512.

EBCDA’s Health Development Team supported a road safety initiative for east Belfast with 20 of their road safety champions from Housing, Health, Council departments and groups from the Round Table, Green and Polish community all cycling from the junction of the North Road and Upper Newtownards Road at 7.30am on 3^rd November to the City Hall for a reception with the Lord Mayor of Belfast Cllr Niall Ó Donnghaile.  Belfast Mayor, Councillor Niall Ó Donnghaile, said he was pleased to host the event and offer whatever support he could to promoting better awareness of bike safety.  He remarked sensitively about the recent cycling fatality and his ongoing support for bike safety.

The resourcing of the event and the funding of public aware material in English and Polish is supported with funding from the DOE Road Safety Grants administered by Community Transport Association.  This activity hopes to help promote respect and sharing on our roads and throughout the next months at various community events information will be distributed about how to avoid collisions on the road and to increase awareness of the greater numbers of cyclists on our roads.

Local volunteer Jim Roberts who has taken part in a new community cycling group that meet every Friday morning on the Albertbridge Road and usually achieve a two hour cycle with a stop for refreshment;   “I have gained so much by cycling all the routes from North Foreshore to Comber, Lagan towpath to the Newry Canal towpath and I find this to be very enjoyable”.  Supporting this initiative keen cyclist Councillor Dr John Kyle, said  ' There has been a tremendous increase in the number of cyclists using our roads.  This is to be warmly welcomed but it needs to be accompanied by greater safety awareness on the part of both cyclists and drivers.'  The flyer being distributed included the following information;

Cycling:

• Cyclists should wear bright clothing, fluorescent during the day and reflective at night.
• Cyclists should think and act to prevent collisions by reading the road ahead.

Driver:

• Think twice for bike.
• Allow plenty of room when passing a cyclist.
• Pass a cyclist at a cautious speed.
• Take extra care turning left.
• All road users should show due care and consideration to others.

Kolarstwo:

• Rowerzyści powinni nosić jasne ubrania, najlepiej odblaskowe w oziek i w nocy.
• Rowerzyści powinni myśleć i działać, by zapobiegać kolizjom poprzez obserwowanie drogi.

Kierowcó:

• Pomyśl dwa razy za siebie i za kierujacego rowerem.
• Pozostew odpowiednioa ilosc miejsca dle rowerzystow.
• Dostosuj wiasciwa predkosc do kierujacych rowerami.
• Należy zachować szczególną ostrożność skiacajac w lewo.
• Wszyscy użytkownicy dróg powinni wykazać należytą ostroznosc olbajac o siebie i o innyds kierujgcycls.

For further information: - Alan Houston, Health Development Worker, Tel. 90451512 Fax: 90738039 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Website: www.ebcda.org

Twelve East Belfast representatives from the Community and Voluntary Sector recently received certificates on completion of a very successful four week Health Advocacy Programme organized by EBCDAs Health Development and Social Connections Programme. The feedback and evaluation from participants was very positive. All participants recorded that they had found the course useful in a number of areas including, increasing their knowledge and awareness on how to lobby effectively on health issues, practical tips on making the assembly work for them and dealing with complaints about the Healthcare System effectively through the most appropriate channels.

As a follow on to this four week programme, EBCDA are hosting two further weeks of training in partnership with NICVA. On Tuesday 22^nd November “Making Policy Work for you” workshop is available from 10am-12.30pm at EBCDA office. The following week, Tuesday 29^th November workshop is entitled “Get to know N.Ireland Assembly”. Both these workshops are very worthwhile and places are limited so get your name down fast by contacting Jonny Currie at EBCDA on 90451512 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Once again thanks to all those who participated on the four week programme and a word of thanks to Disability Action who were our most hospitable hosts for the duration of the course.