Oasis Caring in Action, Belfast, Northern Ireland 

Oasis is a community organisation working with the people of Inner East Belfast.  Their desire is to see people empowered within their personal, family and community lives.

The project started out with a small team of people who began by exploring the needs of the local community. Cliff Kennedy, the director of the project since its inception, recalls, “We made up questionnaires and did a door-to-door survey. We also talked to community organisations, health professionals, social workers and other churches to find out where they thought the gaps were.”  

As a result of these conversations they discovered a broken community struggling to cope with years of conflict and underinvestment. They found an area characterised by paramilitary violence, high levels of unemployment, poor housing, limited communal play facilities and low levels of literacy and numeracy. However, rather than becoming overly philosophical about the best way forward the team thought it best to get to work, as Cliff explains, “we thought about a joint project but decided that instead of talking we would do something and then ask people to get on board.” 

Drop-in
And so in February 1996 Oasis started out as a drop-in centre in a small two-up two-down terraced house in Thorndyke Street at the centre of the Inner East Belfast redevelopment programme. However, as the team began to form relationships with local people they quickly realized that the community desperately needed a centre to provide support for the unemployed. Unfortunately their existing premises were unsuitable for this purpose but they did not allow this to deter them. With the help of funding from the Belfast European Partnership Board and the International Fund for Ireland they were able to acquire new premises on neighbouring Castlereagh Street.
The Oasis Centre opened its doors for the first time in January 1999 and since then the growth of services being offered to the public has been phenomenal. As well as providing essential skills training, placements and jobs for the unemployed, the centre also runs two befriending projects for disadvantaged groups within the community, an early years centre which caters for 120 children every day and three coffee shops. Oasis has also initiated a social housing business in which they buy and refurbish local properties which are then rented out to local people.

Continuing to listen 

And yet despite all this activity the staff at Oasis are not content to sit back and rest on their laurels. They make it a priority to continually ask local people if there are other things they could be doing and they are currently in consultation with four other organisations exploring the possibility of setting up a domiciliary care company.
Oasis’s vision statement is ‘Transformed lives, Transformed community’ and this is exactly what they are seeing happen, “We are starting to see people’s lives being transformed, whether it is because they can now communicate better, their health is better or they because they have a new job. As a result of individuals being transformed and working with others we are seeing our community transformed.”
As well as its impact on the local community Cliff is also aware of the project’s many benefits for the members of his church, “It has inspired people, helped them to understand what the Bible says about the poor and given them an outlet to outwork their passion.”

Start small and build 

Asked if he had any tips for churches thinking of getting involved in community mission, Cliff’s advice is simple, “Start small and build. Don’t just talk – do something!” He also acknowledged the benefit of visiting other projects when they were starting out and he would happy to facilitate this for anyone who would like to take a closer look at Oasis’s ministry for themselves.
To find out more information visit the Oasis website - http://www.oasis-ni.org/home/