To my mind the history of what is now the Skainos Project began on a damp and cold March afternoon in 2000, when the lack of light outside seemed to cause everyone to peer short-sightedly into the middle distance. To be honest, I wasn’t even working in the place at that point, though I had been appointed as Director of Care & Training Services.

Gary and I met with Ian Elliott from Oaklee Housing Association, and an economic consultant friend of his who, with his opportunist’s eye, saw over and beyond our simple thinking to renovate the existing building, into an ambitious future of redevelopment.

From that meeting began what is now a £20m urban regeneration project on the lower Newtownards Road between Templemore Avenue and Dee Street.

For the next 3 years the dream persisted and even began to take on some greater clarity. The consultant brought on an architect friend and he produced some sketches. We examined the viability of simply renovating the existing buildings. We talked about possibilities in the context of the congregation at EBM. And still we persisted with the slightly vague nomenclature of ‘the redevelopment project’.

Only later would a name emerge.

The Skainos Project has developed out of the work of East Belfast Mission, an urban mission endeavour of the Methodist Church in Ireland. EBM began as Ballymacarrett Methodist Church way back in 1826 when the district was a rural village suburb of the rapidly growing town of Belfast. Long since overtaken by the city, Ballymaccarrett or Inner East Belfast is now a post-industrial community bearing the scars of the decline of heavy engineering in the city.

Ballymaccarrett Methodist Church became Newtownards Road Methodist Church and on 23 November 1985, the same day as 100,000 Protestants gathered in Belfast to protest the Anglo-Irish Agreement, it became East Belfast Mission, one of five Missions in Ireland.

As we prepare to demolish the existing buildings, including the church building, to make way for Skainos, one peculiar feature of the Mission bears remembering. Since 1826, roughly on a cycle of 50 years the congregation has demolished its church building to re-tool itself for mission in a new era. Skainos represents the latest manifestation of this trait.

And one final thing. The oldest continuous Sunday School in Belfast is at EBM. Formed in 1809, 200 years ago and has been running ever since.

East Belfast is reputed as a more prosperous area of the city. Whilst this is true of parts of the East, the reputation is based upon a time when East Belfast was the industrial engine that drove the economy of Northern Ireland. High density, terraced housing served the thousands of workers from the nearby manufacturing companies. Churches were filled and there was a vibrant economy.

Today, however, East Belfast is a post-industrial area afflicted by a number of serious problems. According to the Professor Noble Multiple Deprivation Indicators, Inner East Belfast is home to two of the ten most deprived electoral wards in the whole of Northern Ireland. There are considerable pockets of deprivation even in wards that give the impression of economic prosperity and security.

The area lacks good health, family cohesion, and information. The neighbourhood’s children are afflicted with higher than average levels of disability, and lone parents run a high number of the area’s households. The community is largely dependent on government benefits, but many face unnecessary disadvantages because they are unaware that they qualify to receive these benefits.

Educational underachievement is rife in East Belfast. Schools continue to experience falling enrollment due to lack of redevelopment, and buildings are in disrepair. Teachers suffer from low morale, and schools lack continuity of resources targeted at specific needs. On Census Day only 5% of the population aged 16-74 years in Ballymacarrett Ward had a degree level or higher qualifications.

Unemployment worries a majority of households in the surrounding neighbourhood. Just a few decades ago, 30,000 of the community’s members were employed by Harland & Wolff and other industries nearby. Now H&W employs a handful of workers. In Ballymacarrett ward alone, 63% of all households have no adult in employment.

The Skainos Project recognizes the complexity of the area’s current multidimensional need, and is committed to meeting the present and prospective needs in an inclusive and empowering way.