3.12 am. I sat there in silence. One small spotlight illuminated the room and lit up a window full of post-it notes and an old wooden cross draped in green ribbon, writes Ben Connelly. DC and Bean lay on the floor sleeping. “Great! This is my slot, and I can’t even listen to music.” No [...]

It was never how she dreamt she would be spending her 46th birthday; sitting in a little house in Belfast with two transvestites, sharing a meal and laughing alot.  And as they partied together Jacqui knew there was nowhere else she’d rather be.
The encounter came about through Jacqui Robb’s work with Hope Ministries.  The Monkstown [...]

‘She’ is not so different from me, really. Sure, our worlds are like night and day: one English living comfortably, the other Irish, living in hardship, taking drugs and waiting for the next punter to squirm into her life for a few horrendous moments.  But there is a chord that binds our hearts together…. writes Susan [...]

She could feel her fingers begin to freeze as she sat there trying to fill out forms in a living room which clearly hadn’t been heated for some time.  There was no carpet on the floor, no food in the fridge, no hope in the face of the woman sitting opposite her…
Jacqui Robb knew this [...]

“I’d never crossed to the other side of the street - because that was ‘the other side’.”  The heartfelt words of one of the storytellers at our recent Tales from the City event.  It was a night of quality music, positive stories, warm chat, coffee and treats.  It was a night where hope was voiced.
Andrew’s [...]

“I think people should be screaming about this place…”  - that’s how the creator of an innovative new art project, which aims to capture the spirit of Belfast, feels about the city…
‘We are Belfast’ is an online wall made up of people’s favourite images of the city, which will then become a feature at an [...]

They grew up in south America, worked in influential jobs within the media yet struggled to  find their voices in the atmosphere created by two military regimes.  Now they are partners in a new expression of church in north Belfast, where they long for people to find and raise their voices….
The paths of Dario Leal [...]

It apparently takes just 120 seconds to consume a cream egg… and this weekend thousands of people will be getting their teeth stuck into the yummy treats courtesy of two local youth groups.
Young people from churches in north Belfast and Granshaw have spent months collecting cream eggs en masse, in preparation for handing them out [...]

Take a few young people with a vision to make a difference on the streets of Belfast; take a few flasks of soup and hot drinks - and plenty of warm layers to combat some of the coldest nights of the year. This is a project known as Beautiful Feet.
It started out as an idea [...]

If people care enough to do this for me, then maybe I am worth caring about…”  The words of a woman in Belfast who has been handed a free hamper of groceries - all thanks to the kindness of random strangers she will never meet…

She’s one of 2,400 people across the city who have benefited [...]