Participants and Supporters at the Holywood Library Exhibit

How a community-led street art initiative transformed young lives and gave street artists a platform to grow.

When a group of young people in Comber first picked up spray cans for the START (Street Art) Project, they were largely disengaged from the community and youth initiatives. A few years later, they were standing in Holywood Library, watching members of the public admire their work on the walls and even selling their original pieces.

That journey, from disaffected youth to celebrated public artists, is precisely what the START Project was designed to achieve.

A Partnership That Made It Possible

The START Project is a collaboration between Comber Community Residents Group (CCRG), Ards and North Down Borough Council's (ANDBC) Community Safety Team, and the PSNI Neighbourhood Policing Team. From the outset, the ambition was not just to paint over problems, but to get to the root of them, engaging the young people most likely to cause graffiti damage and giving them a legitimate, skilled outlet for their creativity.

Central to making that ambition a reality was Sarah Harkness-Robinson, Community Development Officer at Supporting Communities. Sarah played a pivotal role as a connector and enabler throughout the project, bringing together community volunteers, statutory agencies, housing associations, and local artists under a shared vision. Her encouragement gave CCRG the confidence to pursue external funding, develop formal partnerships, and push through the challenges that any pioneering project encounters. Without that support, the project may never have progressed beyond issues discussed at an Interagency meeting.

As the Community Safety Officer for Ards & North Down Borough Council, Tom Jackson, put it: “The START Project is helping to make communities safer by supporting people at an early stage and addressing issues before they escalate. That preventative approach benefits individuals and the wider community alike.”

Three Phases, One Remarkable Story

Some of the young artists with Mayor Gillian McCollum

The project unfolded across three phases. Phase 1 saw ten young people identified by the PSNI and ANDBC Community Safety Team spend six weeks creating a mural on the Comber public toilets alongside professional street artists. Open sessions invited the wider public to contribute, and people aged between 2 and 82 picked up a brush. The response from the community was, in the words of CCRG, "nothing but positive."

Phase 2 extended the project to the Muckers skate park, where ASB had been a recurring concern raised by residents in Cherry Valley, DeWind, and beyond. This provided an opportunity for residents to participate in the project, to meet the young people face-to-face, and to begin to change their perceptions of the groups of kids gathering at the skate park. Young artists produced individual pieces for the skate park fence, supported by ongoing mentorship from Chris and the team at CODO Art N.I.

Phase 3, the final and most ambitious stage, challenged six emerging artists to go further still. Four focused workshops covered digital art techniques, large-scale production, exhibition planning, and merchandise development. The culmination was a public exhibition themed "Comber: Past, Present, and Future", planned and executed by the young artists themselves.

The Exhibition

An Artist Chatting with North Down and Ards Mayor Gillian McCollum

The April exhibition at Holywood Library marked a genuine milestone. The young people who had once been disengaged, and in some cases, on the radar of statutory services for the wrong reasons, stood confidently beside work they had conceived, created, and curated. The artwork will be exhibited again in September at the NIHE headquarters in Belfast, with selected pieces available for sale.

At the exhibition, Stephen Mills of CCRG reflected on what the project had achieved:

"Your vibrant artwork has enriched our community, bringing colour, inspiration, and a sense of unity to all who experience it… you have left a lasting, positive mark on our community."

Real Impact, Measurable Change

The results speak for themselves. Unsanctioned graffiti in the areas targeted by the project has stopped, and the young people understand the difference between street art and graffiti. Young people who were previously disengaged are now talking enthusiastically about art, mentoring their peers, and asking what comes next. Statutory partners, the PSNI, NIHE, and ANDBC, have been able to redirect time and resources away from graffiti removal. Elderly and vulnerable residents who had raised fears about anti-social behaviour have seen those concerns taken seriously and have had the chance to meet and work alongside the very young people they had worried about.

The collaborative exhibition piece produced in Phase 3 is designed to tour other communities, carrying Comber's story further afield and inspiring similar approaches elsewhere in Northern Ireland.

Funders and Partners

The project was made possible by funding and support from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Radius Housing, and Ark Housing, with key partnership from ANDBC Community Safety Team and the PSNI Community Team - including Constable Whitelaw, Constable Getty, Constable White, Sgt McCorry, and Sgt Kane (whose pizza contribution did not go unmentioned). Thanks also to Tom Jackson (ANDBC), Gus Moore and Eileen Thompson (Housing Executive), and Chris and the team at CODO Art N.I.

Supporting Communities is proud to have played a part in the START Project. If your community group is working on a project that could benefit from partnership support or development advice, get in touch with your local Community Development Officer.