Neighbourhood Renewal is a new approach to tackling deprivation within our urban communities in Northern Ireland. A large part of Downpatrick, including the Flying Horse, Model Farm and New Model Farm estates, Kennedy Square, Meadowlands, Marian Park, Bridge Street / Mount Crescent and a substantial part of the town centre with a total population of around 5,000 people is designated as the Downpatrick Neighbourbhood Area (NRA), one of 36 such areas in towns and cities in Northern Ireland.

Neighbourhood Renewal is about closing the gap between the quality of life for people in the most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of society. Neighbourhood Renewal has four interlinking strategic objectives:

Community Renewal - To develop confident communities that are able and committed to imporving the quality of life in their areas.

Economic Renewal - To develop economic activity in the most deprived neighbourhoods and connect them to the wider urban economy.

Social Renewal - To improve social conditions for the people who live in the most deprived neighbourhoods through better co-ordinated public services and the creation of safer environments.

Physical Renewal - To help create attractive, safe, sustainable environments in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

A number of new projects are being funded through Neighbourhood Renewal, two of these programmes are being managed/delivered through East Down Rural Communnity Network, they are as follows:

1. The Inter-Estates Community Programme aims to provide specialist support and a programme of activities for the communities within the Neighbourhood Renewal Area to enable them to play an active role in their community so that they can make a positive contribution to the social, physical and economic development of their area.
2. The Community Relation Programme aims to work with the young people from the neighbourhood renewal area. Over the next few years the programme includes many trips and courses for the young people of Downpatrick. While this programme is focused on Community Relations it will also be working very closely with the Neighbourhood Renewal team.

Please find links to our Newsletters and Activity Sheets below:

To open the Neighbourhood Renewal Issue 1 Newsletter please click here

To open the Neighbourhood Renewal Issue 2 Newsletter please click here

To open our Neighbour Renewal Activity Sheet October 2008 please click here

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