Youth social inclusion conference hosted by Phoenix education centre and sponsored by Unite

What: Reimagining Inclusive Support Education (RISE) conference

When: 9.30am Thursday 28th November 2024

Where: Stormont Hotel ballroom, 587 Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast BT4 3LP

Belfast-based Phoenix education centre is to host the ‘Reimagining Inclusive Supportive Education’ (RISE) conference with a focus on educational disadvantage. Phoenix education is a grassroots, community-led outreach and education provider working with alienated youth in educationally disadvantaged and deprived working-class communities in the east and south of the city.

Speakers will include Susan Fitzgerald, Unite regional secretary; professor Erik Cownie, Ulster University; Geraldine McGahey, chief commissioner, Equality Commission; and Emma Shaw, Phoenix Education. The highlight of the conference will be a panel of young people from the inner-city area. The conference has been co-sponsored by Unite the union.

Phoenix education coordinator Emma Shaw said, “Inner city communities in Belfast suffer the highest levels of educational disadvantage in Northern Ireland. Our young people are falling through the cracks because of an academically selective educational system which is deeply unfair to working-class children. The result is social exclusion and a missed opportunity for our economy.

“Community-based initiatives like Phoenix education are trying to reach out and offer a positive pathway for socially excluded young people but much more is needed. The RISE conference attempts to raise this issue onto the political agenda at Stormont.”

Jeff Robinson chair of the Irish executive committee of Unite said: “Educational disadvantage is a class issue. We cannot simply stand by and watch as another generation of working-class people is failed and left behind. Engaging and upskilling young people from inner city areas can not only ensure cohesion and improve community relations but can help secure industrial growth and economic development.”