Making Belfast a welcoming, caring, fair and inclusive city – leaving no one behind

As a compassionate city, we recognise the diversity of our people and we are determined to make things better for everyone.

Our priorities will help to ensure that the most vulnerable people in our society have a genuine sense of belonging and are able to participate and access opportunities. This includes understanding and respecting the diverse cultures, languages and identities of all our people.

All our priorities and action plans have been influenced by a desire to address inequalities which are a result of people’s gender, race, age and disability. These are included throughout our action plans where appropriate.

We have identified four priorities under this theme:

1. Inclusive growth and anti-poverty
2. Children and young people
3. Older people
4. Good relations and a shared future

We have created detailed action plans for each of these priorities, which can be viewed by clicking on the 'action plans' links on this page.

Measures of success

The things we want to achieve by 2028 include:

• reducing the proportion of people living in relative poverty from 18% (before housing costs). Relative poverty is the term used to describe a person living in a household where the income is less than 60% of the UK median income.
• reducing the proportion of children (0-15 years) growing up in poverty from 22% to 18% (at least 3,000 children).
• supporting 600 to 800 older people (most in need) through activities which aim to improve their activity levels, help them feel more connected and less lonely.
• increasing the percentage of young people (16 – 24) who agree that they are able to have a say on how services are run, what the priorities are, or where investment is needed from 32.6% to 40.5%.

Use the "Stay Informed" link to be kept up to date with engagements and updates relating to this theme.