Baroness May Blood, Board Member, Greater Shankill Project, Belfast

Baroness Blood was a participant on the Belfast programme in 1994. She explains why she joined the programme and what she - and her community - got out of it

"We know knowledge is power. We want to find out how things work and look outwards. We recognise that we are part of a much bigger jigsaw."
"When I became a member of the Belfast action team, the leader told me to apply to the Common Purpose Millennium awards. I was not for it. I'd been on plenty of courses. But I had to do it.

 

I was convinced that I would not be taken seriously. In Northern Ireland, but perhaps everywhere, community entrepreneurs are not taken seriously, especially if they are women. I knew I had a serious contribution to make but I knew I would be treated as a poor relation.

 

It's probably because of this that the programme had such a massive effect on me. I found my views were being taken seriously. I was surrounded by people who treated me as an equal not as a poor relation. You cannot believe what that does for your confidence.

 

I got new knowledge and contacts. All networks up to then had either been in my own community or with top-level people in government. The programme gave me working links with other local leaders and civil servants whom I had always seen as bogeymen.

 

My life is about serving this community, particularly the young people. For years, they have just been fodder for the paramilitaries. We want the next generation to be real people with real futures. All the contacts and knowledge I got from the programme helped me give them new opportunities.

 

Once the programme was over, Common Purpose gave me a way to take all this back into my community. Perhaps there was a day when community entrepreneurs could sit in their own small office, dealing with local issues and seeing everyone outside as enemies. But things have changed and community people have too. We recognise that we are part of a much bigger jigsaw.

 

Common Purpose treats community entrepreneurs in the same way it treats company directors. It is a vision for the future I want to be part of.

 

It's the best learning I have ever done."