by Philomena Horner and Nuala Magee
In a week when calls from members of the Northern Ireland Assembly for a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy against crime and antisocial behavior on the streets have been tempered by arguments in favor of more rounded, innovative solutions to the underlying problems, we are pleased to be able to report on an example of just that willingness and determination to try a fresh approach…

Together 4 All is an ambitious community-driven, ten-year strategy to improve the prospects of children and young people living around Lurgan. The goal is to improve mutual respect and understanding among Northern Irish children from all traditions and backgrounds, to raise standards of behavior and reduce bullying.

It has been a fundamental aim to include everyone involved in children's lives in the collective effort to improve outcomes. We are designing new prevention initiatives that incorporate models shown to be effective elsewhere, but we are drawing also on the local evidence and looking to integrate the existing provision.

With a combined population of just over 37,000, the districts of Lurgan, Brownlow, Aghagallon and Bleary are a microcosm of Northern Ireland in terms of need, demography and socio-economic mix.

There are populations of Protestants -sometimes known as Unionists- and Catholics - often labeled Nationalists. There has also been a rapid increase in numbers from other ethnic backgrounds, mainly Chinese, Asian, Irish traveler, Portuguese and Eastern European. About a third of the population (11,514 in 2004) are children.

As the program name promises, Together 4 All is an inclusive strategy. It reflects the views of more than 700 adults (parents as well as professionals) and 1,600 children and young people. Meetings and discussion groups and other ways of sharing ideas, for example through art and drama, have been used to find out what people want for their children, and how those aspirations can be achieved.

Alongside people's views, we have assembled authoritative evidence on well-being. Nineteen of the 24 schools in the four areas participated in an epidemiological examination of children's health and development, of the risks they face and the services they use. Awareness of the underlying data had a marked effect on what the communities decided to do for their children.

In some respects, the findings were encouraging. The physical health of children in Lurgan, Brownlow, Aghagallon and Bleary is not significantly different from elsewhere in the UK; most are doing as well in school as other children in the EU.

But their mental health is a cause for concern. One in four children reported being often very angry, and levels of conduct disorder were found to be six per cent higher than elsewhere in the UK, which has a higher rate than other EU states. The behavior of the average child was found to be significantly worse than comparable communities and one in six reported having been bullied in the previous week.

There were also worrying signs with respect to influences on well-being. One in 25 children reported having seen grown-ups in their homes hitting one another. Nearly a third said they had had heard grown-ups in their homes yell at one another several times. One in ten said their parents ‘hardly ever’ praised them. At first hearing, these may sound like the incidentals of family life, but they are important indicators of deeper need.

Other authoritative research about children in Northern Ireland also influenced thinking. It included the work of Paul Connolly whose 'Too Young to Notice' report gave sobering insights into the cultural and political awareness of pre-schoolers [see also: Does peace always mean burying differences?]. Edward Melhuish's Effective Pre-school Provision in Northern Ireland EPPNI study made us think about how to build on innovation in the early years.

How to give the whole community a powerful say in strategic planning

We used a Dartington method called Common Language to combine the data, the perspectives of children, family members and practitioners and findings about 'what works' from around the world into a single strategy. It has five linked components.

First, we will be delivering a whole-school curriculum to all primary school children, starting with seven-year-olds. We learned from these younger children that theirs is an under-resourced age group. They need support to negotiate a difficult transitional period in their development.

Secondly we want to work with experts from Northern Ireland, the US and Norway to develop new programs or to adapt proven ones and to include them in the school curriculum. Mark Greenberg [whose presentation to senior policy makers will be reported here tomorrow, October 5th] is helping us develop his Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) program.

Paul Connolly and his Queen's University Belfast team have agreed to help us build strategies into the curriculum to improve understanding and respect between pupils from different religious and ethnic traditions. We are about to engage with experts in bullying prevention. For example, we are very interested in applying the program developed by Dan Olweus, founding father of research on bully/victim problems. We think this may fit well with the curriculum to improve mutual respect, understanding and behavior.

A third part of the plan is to collaborate with local organizations to develop ‘collective efficacy’ in the community. Our thinking was much influenced by the work of Felton Earls at Harvard University [see also: Chicago’s collective consciousness goes to Tanzania]

The idea is to train communities to take shared responsibility for promoting good behavior. We are planning to introduce shared efficacy in schools and throughout the youth sector. This carries forward the Northern Ireland Department of Education's aspirations for youth provision and the Department of Social Development’s focus on community capacity building

The fourth strand focuses on the one in six children who will develop a conduct disorder. The plan is to offer these children and their parents support so that they can stay in mainstream education, in the process improving integration between schools and child mental health services.

Finally, Together 4 All will be working with local organizations to develop an integrated approach to children’s services. Better approaches to service design and implementation will be promoted, as will rigorous evaluation and better workforce training. Getting all these ideas written into manuals for others to use is also part of our thinking.

We think this combination of community engagement and good science marks Together 4 All apart from previous developments in Northern Ireland. The partnership between the communities and the private and voluntary sectors is evident in the make-up of the Board for the Together 4 All charity; the continued commitment to good evidence is just as clear in he membership of the Expert Advisory Group which includes people like Ted Melhuish and Mark Dynarski from Mathematica Policy Research.

If current plans come to fruition, funding from philanthropy and Government will allow the work to get underway in 2008. The relationship between Together 4 All and its benefactors depends on results. If, by 2011, the experimental evaluation shows that the first parts of the strategy are bringing about improvements in children's behavior, respect and understanding, then a second tranche of work, possibly focusing on the early years or adolescence, will begin.

• Philomena Horner and Nuala Magee are members of the Together 4 All project team.