East Belfast Mission

Our work is based in the heart of East Belfast on the Newtownards Road. The four surrounding electoral wards, where our work primarily takes place, are all in the top 30 most deprived wards in N.Ireland.  In the area in which we are based, 32-46% of people are totally economically inactive and two thirds live in rented accommodation. Qualifications are low and unemployment and lack of self-belief are rife. We aim to relieve these difficulties and transform and renew our community by offering a range of services to support those in our community who need our help.

Our projects  include our Hosford Homelessness services, our Employability project, our Irish Language project and of course our thriving church community which offers community groups, counselling and pastoral care to those who need it.

Church and Community

Every week a wide range of social, spiritual and support groups offer friendship and community to on average 300 local people of all ages. These groups include; Aspire Children’s Project, Over 50’s Lunch Club, Women’s Group, Men’s Fellowship Group, Mums & Tots, Weekly Drop In,  Fusion youth club and weekly bible studies as well as a monthly Café Church.

These groups all strive to reduce isolation and enable people to build relationships with their peers, making East Belfast Mission a place where everyone is welcome, encouraged and empowered to fulfil their potential

The Church and Community Team also deliver an annual ‘Neighbours in Need’ project, providing on average over 2,000 Christmas Food Hampers to families in need.

At the core of East Belfast Mission is the congregation who meet Sunday by Sunday. Formerly known as Newtownards Methodist Church, it was their heart to see the Love and Grace of God shared with the people of East Belfast that began our work as a soup kitchen in the early 1900’s and has seen our projects grow to make East Belfast Mission the charity it is today.

Counselling

The East Belfast Mission counselling and psychotherapy service has been established for over 10 years. Our experienced counsellors and therapists strive to create a warm, safe and personal space for clients to be able to explore difficult thoughts and feelings, and support them in their journey to find solutions to their difficulties. 

We work on building strong therapeutic relationships based on trust and respect, with people of all faiths and none, and we value the individual differences and backgrounds of all our clients. We provide counselling and psychotherapy for children, young people, adults, and older adults, to individuals, couples, and families. 

Hosford Homelessness Services 

Hosford has been working with the most vulnerable and marginalised in society for the last 25 years.  At the core of this is our homeless hostel, which was rebuilt in October 2012 as part of the Skainos project. Funded by Supporting People and jointly managed with Choice Housing it provides offering some of the best temporary accommodation in Northern Ireland. 

We provide enough accommodation for 26 people (single men and women aged 17 years plus) and have a stepping stone approach of single rooms and apartments which helps people to rebuild their lives and work towards living independently.  

We offer 24/7 support and each resident has their own Support Worker who provides housing related support to help them to find and maintain their own home. Residents also have a chance to engage with all the other services Hosford and East Belfast Mission provide as well as help to link in with any relevant services in the area.  

Tenancy Support

Hosford Tenancy Support workers provide practical and emotional support to people who are living independently but encountering problems and could lose their home. They aim to enable people to live independently through developing their skills and their ability to deal with problems. The service is about preventing homelessness by intervening in its causes.   

Tenancy Support Workers are available to meet with clients in their own homes or other locations in the community. Appointments may be arranged on a daily, weekly or monthly basis for up to two years depending on the needs of the client.  

Health and Wellbeing Project

Hosford’s Health and Welling Project aims to tackle the health and wellbeing issues faced by people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. This project gives those involved opportunities to learn new skills, make progress in their lives, meet friends, and to be part of a community. These projects, principally funded by Urban Villages, are open to all Hosford clients and can also accommodate some members of the community.  

The project offers a wide range of activities such as cooking, gardening, art, drama, and community events.  

Employability Services

The Employability Team at East Belfast Mission delivers two programmes: the Belfast Works Project and the Community and Family Support Programme.

Both are funded through the Northern Ireland European Social Fund Programme 2014 – 2020 and the Department for the Economy.

The Belfast Works Programme also receives funding from Belfast City Council and Urban Villages.

Belfast Works

The Belfast Works Project is a Belfast City-wide project which seeks to address the issue of long-term unemployment by supporting those most removed from the job market. Run in partnership with Ashton Community Centre (Lead Partner), GEMS NI, Job Assist Centre Greater Shankill, and Job Assist Centre West Belfast, it is a voluntary, client-centred programme offering: 

• Employment mentoring 
• Wellbeing coaching 
• Free industry related training 
• A link to real jobs 

Employability Mentors provide one-to-one support to clients in East Belfast Mission and in Outreach Centres across East Belfast. Mentors have years of experience in providing advice and guidance on education, training and careers, and work alongside clients to offer the support they need to progress into employment, including: 

• Help preparing a CV 
• Help job searching 
• Help completing application forms 
• Mock interviews

Access to free training which includes Health and Social care, Childcare, Hospitality, Business Admin, as well as basic ICT to ECDL, word processing and spreadsheets. Additionally, EBM work in partnership with Belfast Met to offer Essential skills up to level 2 in Literacy Numeracy and ICT.

Our wellbeing parallel support offers additional help to those clients who have other barriers to employment.  It offers through one to one mentoring and group work on any issues that might prevent a client from applying and gaining work such as low confidence, anxiety etc.

Community Family Support Programme

The Community Family Support Programme is a Belfast City wide partnership led by the Upper Springfield Development Trust. Family Support Workers at East Belfast Mission deliver the programme for EBM in East Belfast. 

The programme is primarily an Employability Programme and is entirely voluntary, it does not affect benefit entitlement, and offers a range of support services tailored to a client’s own specific needs. It is for clients who are unemployed or working less than 16 hours per week and live in East Belfast.

As a client of CFSP you will benefit from various training opportunities, and optional home visits from our brilliant CFSP mentors, who will help identify any needs or barriers they may have to accessing employment. 

Our current clients have successfully completed courses in ICT, Maths, English, Personal Development,  Autism Awareness, Healthy Eating and Positive Parenting, and we are constantly looking for relevant training opportunities.

It is a very relaxed, individualised programme that works within a client’s own needs.  Past clients have gained a variety of skills ranging from improved communication skills, confidence, increased self-esteem, qualifications, and employment. 

There is a strong social element to the programme. We have regular coffee mornings, Christmas and Easter parties for all the family and outings in school holidays to local attractions.

Turas

“Turas” meaning journey or pilgrimage in both Irish Gaelige and Scots Gàidhlig is an Irish language project which aims to connect people from Protestant communities to their own history with the Irish language. Turas is based on the belief that the language belongs to everyone and that it can be a mechanism of reconciliation.

Turas offers a programme of weekly language classes for a range of ability levels as well as cultural activities,  heritage themed sessions, and bus tours of East Belfast to help locals and tourists alike to uncover an unknown Gaelic history of East Belfast .

Programmes Include: Irish Language Classes at beginners and intermediate levels, cultural activities including weekly set dancing classes, traditional music, an Irish language singing class and periodic music and arts events and heritage sessions on the historic links between Protestants and the Irish language and the relevance or the language in present day society.

Social Economy

East Belfast Mission run various social enterprises designed to generate financial support to fund and develop our vital work.

Restore is a chain of 8 charity shops in Belfast, Antrim, Larne, Newtownards and Lisburn, which specialise in the sale of good quality furniture and bicycles, as well as clothes, books and bric-a-brac.

Recycle, a project based at our warehouse, repairs and refurbishes bicycles both donated by the public and collected from council recycling centres. These are then sold in our chain of Restore charity shops.

Refurb, is a project that repairs and refurbishes furniture which is then sold in our chain of restore charity shops. This furniture is collected from private donations as well as through local council contracts to allow us to collect a range of furniture from council recycling sites

Refresh Café, based in the Skainos centre, serves good-value and nutritious breakfast, lunch and dinner to the public 6 days a week. It also provides outside catering for local businesses and community groups. From our Refresh Café we also run our Meals on Wheels service, which provides regular hot meals to over 250 housebound clients per week.