Community Cohesion: A national challenge
Discussion
TCC experience in leading edge work around community cohesion has given us an insight into the impact of the recent elections to the European parliament.
These results have left a lot of commentators and politicians scratching their heads wondering how public services can reconnect with citizens.
Our experience in many parts of the Country has told us that only by understanding the behaviour of people can we reengage with them about the issues that matter to them.
What did the 2009 elections tell us about community cohesion in Britain?
One level the results indicate that many voters have a high degree of scepticism that the traditional political process. They also indicated that there was concern in some communities about the successful integration of new migrant communities and in others the role of the EU.This combined with local issues opened up space for people to express themselves with far greater support for smaller political parties. In Wales for example the electorate returned for the first time a UKIP MEPs and an English Democrats candidate was elected the new mayor of Doncaster . Voting patterns varied quite substantially and the best overall description of the election was one of fragmentation, especially in poorer communities. This matters because strong communities are those that are the most cohesive.
If the election indicate a reduction in community cohesiveness this will have an effect for those people who are shaping and delivering public services. This is because the delivery of public services can be a flash point for people who feel that they are not receiving a fair treatment from local and national government. Simply delivering great services is in this case not enough if communities remain fragmented. Even if someone receives a great service there will always be a feeling that another group is getting even better treatment. Now that budgets are coming under pressure these feelings could be dramatically magnified.
Research shows traditional white working class communities living near to areas undergoing rapid change may feel a particularly deep sense of injustice and feel unfairly treated in comparison to other areas. Since the 2001 Oldham riots much work has been done trying to engage with white working class communities. This however has often hinged on trying to build community cohesion by simply tell thing communities that their perceptions of other communities is false.
One example of myth busting is to challenge the myth that schools are being swamped by children who do not speak English as a first language using statistical evidence to show this isn’t happening. Quite apart from the fact that many of these communities distrust this kind of official information it is unlikely that people will be open to communication that basically says 10 reason why you are wrong.
TCC has developed a different approach. We don’t tell people they are wrong, we listen to them and engage with them on the issues that matter to them. We do this without pandering to prejudice and discrimination through using emotional intelligence to understand why communities feel isolated from each other. Over a number of years we have developed a number of methodologies however underpinning all of our work are four questions we always ask.
1. Do we understand the evolution of unfairness ?
The first step is to understand the prevailing community narrative. This means identifying the stories that people are using to explain their lives in relation to ‘their’ family, ‘their’ friend and ‘their’ community in relation to other groups and the public services they access. The narrative we need to collect is the real one rather than a sanitized version of how we would like it to be.
By understanding this narrative we can beter design any engagement strategy ensuring it resonated with peoples actual lives. This will ensure that it is believed.
2. Do we reach all parts of the community?
The key to reaching people within communities at reach of fragmentations is to ensure engagement is on the ground and not in the air.
Communications need to be finely segmented to ensure the right messages will reach the right people through the right medium. This does not have to be expensive. One idea is to recruit, train and support local residents who are influential in their communities to communicate with their peers. This is often the most effective way to carry messages to sceptical audiences.
3. How can we rebuild local social capital?
Rebuilding social capital is vital and doesn’t have to bas as expenve as building new community facilities. Some ideas include
Support councillors and other people active in their community to actually lead on engagement techniques. These can include ‘neighbourhood walks’, ‘community conversations’, ‘just listening’ events and question and answer sessions.
Enhancing the ability of public sector staff, volunteers and elected representatives to have two way conversations based on the community narrative so that people feel their frustrations are being actually listened too. Training of front-line staff in conversational communication techniques can help so that staff become better at actively listening to residents.
4. How can we bring people together?
Creating shared challenges. Using the local community leadership identified above there is scope to identify issues of concern to the whole community this could include quality of life issues or anti-social behaviour concerns. Residents are then encouraged and empowered to work together to work with relevant strategic partners on problem solving to effect change.
Get in touch
if you are interesting in this area of our work please get in touch. TCC has built up a body of specialist knowledge on this subject based on our work within hard to engage communities. We are rapidly establishing ourselves as thought leaders in working in areas that score poorly on the NI1 Place survey indicator (the percentage of people who believe people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area).
If you'd like to discuss any of our work in more detail or talk about how we can help you, please ring David on 0208 688 0650 or email david@thecampaigncompany.co.uk
Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 September 2010 15:39