14/10/2025
Re-Imagining Peace: Understanding and Addressing the Roots of Inequality
On 29th September, we gathered in Belfast City Hall for our event Re-Imagining Peace, a conversation designed to challenge assumptions and spark new ways of thinking about how we build healthier, more equitable communities.
In the lead-up to the event, our Joint Chief Executive Jim Donnelly MSc joined BBC Radio Ulster to discuss what we hoped to achieve. While we could have titled the event Re-Imagining Community Development, we deliberately chose Re-Imagining Peace, because peace, in its truest sense, extends far beyond the absence of conflict. It is about creating the social, economic and emotional conditions in which individuals and communities can thrive.
Across our work, we have seen how conflict, violence, mental ill-health, educational underachievement and hopelessness are not random occurrences. They are disproportionately concentrated in communities that have been shaped by disadvantage, inequality and exclusion. Yet, too often, society is quick to label people as the problem, without addressing the structural and environmental factors that contribute to those outcomes.
If we pause and ask why these issues persist, the answer lies not in individual failings but in the environments we collectively create. Our surroundings, opportunities and experiences profoundly influence who we become, but we rarely question or seek to change the environment itself.
To truly re-imagine peace, we must therefore go beyond rhetoric and look at how systems, policies and local contexts can evolve to reduce inequality and restore hope. That means acknowledging the root causes of social division, working collaboratively across sectors and empowering communities and Local organisation with deep rooted connection to be part of the solution.
Re-Imagining Peace is not just about reflection, it is about action, collaboration, and transformation. It invites us all to consider what peace means in practice and how we might redesign our environments to support equity, wellbeing, and resilience.
Listen to Jim’s interview on BBC Radio Ulster to hear more about this vision and why re-imagining peace begins with understanding the environments in which we live and work.
