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S.T.E.P.'s Community Festival was held in Dungannon's Railway Park last Friday in partnership with Dungannon Surestart and funded by St. Vincent de Paul Society, Northern Ireland Events Company and Return of the Earls 2007 (Dungannon & South Tyrone Borough Council). The festival's aim was to promote social integration of the growing Migrant Worker population in Dungannon.
Connections Festival big success for Dungannon Community
After a week of gloomy weather, the sunshine broke through the clouds on last Friday afternoon just in time for the multi-cultural community festival, “Connections”, to take place in Dungannon’s Railway Park.
Local community development and training organisation, S.T.E.P., put together the festival programme to improve integration and inclusion of migrant worker families into the community through a range of fun activities for all ages; it was exciting to see the mix of cultures join together and participate as one community.
S.T.E.P. runs a successful Migrant Support Project offering support services such as advice, guidance, training and immigration advice and so on to the Migrant population in the South Tyrone area and beyond which has grown dramatically over recent years to include a mix of different language groups from Portuguese to Polish, Lithuanian to Tetum.
While a large part of S.T.E.P.’s work in this area to date has been reactive work to issues and problems migrant workers face when they come to the area, the organisation is keen to deliver more positive projects such as the festival so an inclusive social platform can be developed for the various language groups.
Through this generous sponsorship, entrance to the festival was free for all participants. Throughout the afternoon and evening, participants were treated to a mix of music from local rock band Midnight Noise, Coalisland & Clonoe CCE and “The Motion Project”, a group based in Belfast who have developed a sound to reflect the various cultures of its internationally and culturally diverse members.
Other activities included craft workshops, soccer tournaments, Gaelic workshops, kite-building, bouncy castles, face painting and much more – all enjoyed tremendously by members of the community who visited the festival. Both the new Mayor of Dungannon and South Tyrone, Mr Jim Hamilton and local celebrity Malachy Cush dropped by the park to engage with participants and witness the community mix which has now become a strong part of Dungannon.
S.T.E.P.’s Migrant Community capacity Development Worker, Kasia Pagel, main organizer of the festival continues,
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