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The Northern Ireland Housing Executive’s South Antrim Good Relations Officer Stephen Gamble has highlighted the key role played by people in the community who show up, with their sleeves rolled up and determined to get decisions made.

Stephen spends most of his time on the ground, at the heart of communities, listening to and supporting the residents and community workers who live there.

For Stephen, who studied politics at university, he regularly finds himself sensitively sowing seeds of change in the community through gentle conversation.

For 10 years before starting work as a Good Relations Officer in South Antrim Stephen worked in different community development and supporting roles.

He reflects: “The role I remember most fondly was being a Father’s Development Worker for Shankill Surestart where we advanced education

and support programmes.

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“Before university my experience in community work would have been limited to volunteering in football and church programmes. Once I started working in he community sector the training and experience gained accelerated with many interesting life lessons, conversations and training courses around counselling, active listening, suicide awareness and money management.”

Good Relations Week 2023 ran from September 18 until September 24.

Stephen is very clear on what the phrase ‘good relations’ means to him. He explains: “Good Relations is the legal duty public bodies have to promote diversity and inclusivity under section 75 of the 1998 Northern Ireland Act.

"Good relations to me is seeing the Housing Executive’s legal obligations being implemented on a daily basis throughout communities in South Antrim through funded projects which hopefully lead to happier thriving communities.”

Focussing on the future and the future generations is important to Stephen.

He stresses: “It’s easy to forget progress that has been made in the community. And, there is always more to do. My hope is that more people in

our communities will get involved in our Housing Community Network and we will hear younger voices shaping the future or our communities.

“It’s great to see young people at our meetings and hear their opinions. Many of the community leaders are trailblazers and I feel it would be great to see them pass this knowledge on resulting in more young people representing Housing Executive communities.”

For more information, check out nihe.gov.uk

Good Relations Week: NIHE officer highlights importance of working with community