Home

Resources
- Toolkits
  - Communications

Good Practice

In addition to the projects and schemes detailed below, you can find examples of good practice in community cohesion in our dedicated Good Practice Resource Search section:

Search icon Search our good practice resource

The following can give you some new ideas or show how you could do something differently.

Belonging/pride campaigns

Following the disturbances in 2001 in nearby Burnley, and with a sitting BNP councillor, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council wanted to show that it was taking community cohesion seriously.

It decided to run a campaign with partners under a Local Strategic Partnership banner to demonstrate commitment. At the heart of 'Belonging to Blackburn with Darwen' are a series of 'Many lives ...many faces' posters featuring local people from all walks of life and their achievements - for example Sarah, a 22-year-old with Down's Syndrome, whose achievement is her first job as a waitress in the council's restaurant.

The campaign and posters are backed up by stories in the monthly community newspaper The Shuttle, through the media and with local celebrity support. Arts, library and sports events are also badged under 'Belonging to...'

Political parties, partners and voluntary organisations have signed up to a 'charter of belonging', and a number of schools and workplaces are following the lead with their own posters.

The council measures the impact of the campaign annually as part of the LSP's performance management, and since July 7, has measured Muslim and non-Muslim views. The campaign has been backed as good practice by the Home Office and by the Government Office for the North West. There has been widespread support and no backlash from any community. Following the campaign there have been no community disturbances in Blackburn with Darwen.

When Kirklees Council realised that cohesion indicators in Dewsbury were worse than in other parts of the borough, community leaders, partner agencies and council officers swung into action. They agreed to launch a 'Belonging Campaign' to promote togetherness and respect across Dewsbury and reduce divisions between different groups.

The aim of the campaign, due for roll out in Spring 2007, is to change perceptions, feelings, attitudes and beliefs about different communities living in Dewsbury and to create a stronger sense of belonging for everyone who lives there.

An integrated public relations campaign will target key messages and images celebrating diversity in the local area to everyone who lives and works in Dewsbury as well as local business, community groups and service providers.

The PR campaign will be supported by a media campaign to ensure there is positive input from the local media. A 'Belonging to Dewsbury Pledge', 'Together we belong' poster campaign, school projects linked to the campaign themes and support from political parties on the Council and partner organisations should ensure that the campaign reaches its target audience.

Early recognition of the need for strong leadership for the campaign has helped to give the campaign real credibility. But this is balanced by a lead role for local area committees, which will ensure the campaign reflects local views and has more localised ownership.

A comprehensive evaluation framework is in place, so that Kirklees Council can assess the impact and see whether people in Dewsbury are changing their views.

Festivals and events

Festivals and other social events are very visible ways to celebrate diversity, build a sense of belonging and pride and promote better community relations. More councils look for ways to make their festivals and events inclusive and relevant to all their communities, and to help communities attract wider support for their own events. They can also be the starting point for other cohesion initiatives.

In 2005 Hull City Council attracted 10,000 people to its pilot Citizens' Day in the city centre to celebrate diversity. A host of businesses, voluntary organisations and BME groups exhibited and several groups came together to run events such as plays. The council launched its community cohesion strategy the same day, together with a DVD which is shown in the city centre.

The council followed up the event with a series of conferences to show that diversity is good for business. Called 'refugees: the workforce on your doorstep', the conferences attracted a lot of support. The chair of the local football club was so impressed that he led an anti-racism campaign with the club.

This year Citizens' Day has been merged with the annual Lord Mayor's Parade, under the 'All Together' banner, to increase its audience and promote 'togetherness'.

In Leicester, the council, working with community organisations, has successfully broadened the appeal of the annual carnival, so that it has become a citywide event, attracting broader funding and more people. The annual Mela and Diwali events are similarly beginning to attract wider participation.

Kirklees has a festival weekend, with a carnival led by the Afro-Caribbean population on the Saturday and a Mela on the Sunday. The carnival is always more packed but this might be because it threads through the town centre, attracting a lot of attention. The council is looking at how to give the Mela wider appeal.

As part of its community cohesion campaign, Blackburn with Darwin Borough Council is discussing the merger of its two annual events - a Mela, which is virtually all-Asian, and Arts in the Park, which is virtually all-white.

A lot of Blackburn's residents have family members in Pakistan, which was badly affected by the south Asian earthquake. To provide a citywide response for the victims and to focus on the city's international links, the council initiated a fundraising marathon in June 2006. This involved people from community organisations, the LSP, schools and the fire service, running from school to school. The marathon is sponsored by the local paper and an Asian paper, both of which agreed to provide a pullout of the event and feature articles.

Sunderland has three white communities - new town, old Sunderland and coal villages - and a small Asian population. It tries to attract them all to its annual interfaith air show, to celebrate Sunderland.

The annual two-day Mela Festival in Bradford is the biggest in the North, attracting 100,000 people. Because of the size, the council contracts it out. It is sponsored by the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, which gives it editorial coverage before and after, and by a range of other organisations. More income is raised through hiring out stalls.

Recognising that sports and arts activities are important community activities, Epson and Ewell Borough Council organised a Youth Leisure Day for 13-17 year olds. Young people were involved in organising the day and activities ranged from a seminar from Medecins sans Frontieres, dance workshops and basketball-shooting to DJ sessions, makeovers, a fashion show and music. A specially-designed Big Brother-style Diary Room gave the 1,000 young people who participated in the day a chance to tell the council about what they felt was important in the borough.

In September 2006, Boston, Age Concern and the Boston Mayflower Housing Association organised the first "community showcase" in the town's Central Park. This proved successful in attracting a range of organisations and local agencies to offer welfare, advice and information to all visitors, promoting cohesion to all who attended. This will now be repeated in 2007.

Bristol City Council has taken a strategic approach to supporting a range of events to bring communities together.

The goal was to organise city wide and local events that would give local people and opportunity to mix with people from different backgrounds in a way that would promote a stronger sense of community.

Community organised events, such as St Paul's Carnival, Mela, Islamic Fayre and the Stapleton Road Festival are all multi-ethnic and help promote the richness of Bristol's diversity through music, food, dance and art. Bristol City Council has ensured that its own events, such as the Habourside Festival, have become more diverse in their programming in recognition of the City's diversity.

Diverse Doors Open Day is supported by the City Council and involves a range of different faith buildings opening their doors to the public so people cal learn more about different faiths. Joint work is also underway to ensure that the 40 year old Bristol Carnival, organised by BME communities has a secure future and can continue to act as a showcase for the cultutal life of Bristol.

Bristol City Council also provides information and public education on issues affecting asylum seekers and refugees and showcases the contribution that new communities make to Bristol in Bristol Refugee Week.

Led by Bristol City Council, Refugee Action and refugee led organisations, this event is linked to national Refugee Week and has grown in impact over recent years. A week of events take place which promote cohesion through music, dance and sport, for example football matches between 'host' and refugee communities. This week has a wider impact as it generates projects and initiatives through out the year, such as sports tournaments. Local service providers as keen to for space and profile at events through out refugee week as it helps them to reach refugee communities.

Asylum-seeker and refugee communities are among the most targeted communities in terms of stereotyping, discrimination and harassment. Refugees Week helps to redress the balance by promoting positive publicity about refugees and bringing different communities together to enjoy musical, sport and cultural activities.

Cleaner, greener, safer

Community cohesion is increasingly threaded through councils' cleaner, greener, safer campaigns.

Bradford Metropolitan District Council links its community cohesion work to promoting stronger and safer communities. Its campaign is linked to a range of initiatives, such as clean-up activities, schools programmes and drug projects, all aimed at getting people working together around common issues.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council saw its anti-graffiti campaign as a good opportunity to promote cohesion. In one activity, it brought together a range of young people to graffiti a building which was about to be demolished. As a result there was less graffiti around the city.

Blackburn with Darwin Borough Council's 'Thrash the trash - let's do it together' campaign was given an additional £1 million to improve the cleanliness of the borough in order to boost pride in the place.

Working in partnership

Following four days of unrest in Oldham in May 2001 which caused £2 million worth of damage, including the burning of an Asian supermarket, a number of companies and the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) got together to drive community cohesion in the area and publicise the case for investment.

The campaign was launched in 2003 involved several local companies. Innovative tactics were used during the campaign, including:

'Social seams' on buses. Passengers took part in a prize draw ice-breaker on selected buses, involving simple questions about different aspects of the local communities. A music festival also took place on buses, where passengers could request dedications to be played on the local community radio station.
A leaflet on the different ways weddings are celebrated was launched by inviting a selection of brides from different traditions in their wedding outfits. This attracted a lot of media attention and ongoing coverage of the campaign.
A cookery competition hosted by Sainsbury's with contributions from many different communities.
In Tower Hamlets, The Tower Hamlets Partnership (THP), is fundamental to what goes on in the borough. Following extensive consultation on the community strategy to 2010, work is driven by a number of key themes.

To get residents involved, Tower Hamlets has eight local partnership areas, each with its own annual action plan. Four area directors ensure that issues raised through the areas are acted upon. On every key theme, each area runs an engaging, fun event to attract people from all communities. Extra Neighbourhood Renewal Funding for each area allows them to run other, smaller events too, such as a Somali dental project or Bangladeshi drugs counselling. Events are used for consultation, too. In 2005, 4,500 people took part in these area events.

Another interesting initiative is the Kent Football Partnership, in which Gravesham Council is involved. This aims to use football to provide diversionary activities and improve fitness for young people in Kent as well as breaking down barriers within the local community and encouraging different groups to come together.

Work with schools and young people

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has a novel idea for getting their schoolkids out and about to learn more about where they live. 'Positively Stoke' takes Year 7 and 8 pupils on tours of the city. Each bus tour costs £280 and is sponsored by a private sector organisation. Every child writes to the managing director of the company afterwards, saying what they thought of the tour.

What started out by Bradford Metropolitan District Council as a simple twinning of two schools with different pupil populations has developed into a much bigger schools link programme. Run by Education Bradford and promoted by the council's marketing team, this scheme now involves 60 primary and secondary schools.

Bristol City Council supported the development of a video and booklet produced an African-Caribbean older people's group which has been used extensively in schools to allow young people to learn about the history of their elders and relate to their experiences. They have helped bring to life individual stories about moving to Bristol and living and working in the City. This has helped to promote inter-generational relationships and understanding.

Practice what you preach

Realising that its staff were crucial to the success of its belonging campaign, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council badged its equality training under the same banner. All new staff have a day's induction and after a morning of discussions are taken on a tour of the area and to visit community centres.

This is a great way of getting staff to understand what the council is trying to achieve and why. It is proving so popular that Blackburn Rovers and other LSP partners want to copy the scheme for their own staff.

Bracknell Forest Borough Council established 'All of Us' as an umbrella brand to include social inclusion and community cohesion. The strong leadership by the leader and the chief executive has demonstrated the council's commitment to promoting community cohesion. They have consistently given keynote addresses at a range of 'All of Us' events with staff, members and partners.

Awards schemes

Recognising that local businesses make a huge contribution to the economy and the communities they serve, Lewisham Council set up an annual Business Awards scheme in 2005. In 2006, the awards attracted over 120 entries, 20% up on the first year. With eight categories plus a shoppers' choice, the awards celebrate a range of achievements including corporate responsibility, best social enterprise and creative business of the year.

Bradford Metropolitan District Council launched its annual Community Harmony Awards in 2003 to recognise and celebrate activities and schemes which help build respect and understanding between its different communities. The criteria for nomination is that initiatives must have involved at least two different communities and positively changed their views of each other. In 2005, the eight award categories included employee, business, individual and group/organisation. The winners of the business award were a postmaster and pharmacy owner for being at the heart of the community and offering outstanding service to the diverse community, particularly elderly people. The Bradford Telegraph runs features on the nominees and the cost is covered through business sponsorship and other income generation.

Reporting back

Lewisham Council consults regularly and widely, but research showed that people still felt they weren't being listened to. One of the reasons was that the council wasn't always telling residents what happened next. As well as developing better feedback mechanisms, the council now features a Lewisham Listens page in its residents' magazine, which has proved popular. It explains the response to specific consultations, what decisions were made and why. It's a good way to have a more open debate about some of the tough and unpopular decisions councils sometimes have to make.

Using scrutiny

In response to the social disturbances in some towns in 2001, Luton Borough Council was concerned that some of the issues may affect Luton and decided to use its scrutiny function to explore this.

It set up a scrutiny panel of councillors to find out what people felt about living in the area and to see if there were tensions bubbling away under the surface that needed to be discussed more openly. In a bid to promote wider debate, the panel worked with the local media to publicise the project and get as much feedback as possible. The local freesheet, the Herald and Post, also distributed leaflets for the council.

Everyone who contributed their views was invited to an event to discuss the preliminary conclusions. The outcome was positive and participants felt that their views had been correctly interpreted. The panel has now published its report, 'Sticking Together', and is using it to promote work on cohesion with other partners.

Mythbusting

Councils correct myths in a number of ways - usually through their websites or residents'/community newspapers.

Through an innovative collaboration of the Pendle Partnership and local newspapers, Pendle is the first area in the UK to use gentle humour to raise awareness about community relations. 'Myths over Pendle' is a cartoon strip, created by a local resident and Private Eye cartoonist, which appears weekly in the Nelson Leader, Colne Times and Barnoldwick and Earby Times, reaching a readership of 55,000 people. Ideas for the cartoons come from workshops involving local people of all ages and backgrounds. Surveys show that 72% feel the strips are successful in raising awareness about community relations. The cartoons are now being trialled on Tyrer buses in the area and researchers will be gathering passengers' views on them.

In 2004, Bristol City Council produced a comprehensive 'myth-busting' booklet to debunk myths about asylum seekers and refugees and set out accurate facts about things like the numbers of people claiming asylum and what rights they were entitled to. The booklet aims to reduce prejudice by providing accurate information and creating better understanding of new communities.

It was circulated widely as an educational tool in schools and through the voluntary and community sector. In 2005 the booklet was supported by a seminar for council employees whose service delivery required a positive approach to an understanding of new communities and in their service needs. Employees heard directly from refugee organisations about community experiences and priorities. They gained a greater understanding of the services that people need on arrival from Bristol.

A similar booklet has now been produced by the City Council in partnership with Gypsies and Travellers to address myths and stereotypes about their communities.

Inter-faith work

A number of councils are involved in local inter-faith projects with a number of partners.

The Interfaith Kirklees project is a partnership between race and faith organisations, faith communities, Kirklees Metropolitan Council and the Government Office for Yorkshire and The Humber and was launched in 2005. Seven 'faith centres' aim to engage school children and other residents with the faith at that place of worship, through a variety of displays, artefacts and interactive online packages.

Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource is working with the Suffolk Constabulary to help develop the inter faith/multicultural dimension of police training at all levels. It serves on the Police Diversity Programme Board and is a first port of call for support and advice in emergencies and matters relating to community safety and cohesion. The police now fund some of its work with the Muslim community.

More examples can be found at the Inter Faith Network for the UK.

Work with the media

Nick Carter, Editor of the Leicester Mercury, has worked positively within the local area to promote cohesion. The Mercury runs a first-person column which features individuals from all communities - something other papers might be persuaded to do.

Local papers in Stoke run a Media Savvy six-week training programme to show local people how the media works, funded via The Department for Communities and Local Government and Pathfinders. So far 77 people have been trained and it is about to be evaluated.

Understanding that its residents trusted the local media, Enfield Council distributed a 'fact pack' through the local paper on issues about asylum seekers and refugees.

Developing local democracy

Bristol City Council won the 2006 LGC award for supporting local democracy. With Operation Black Vote, it responded to under-representation in the council chamber by initiating the first cross-party joint councillor shadowing scheme in the UK for local government. The scheme lets Bristol's BME community see what becoming a councillor involves and encourages them to form their own informal support networks before elections.

A good idea for getting young people interested and involved in local politics and their communities came from Lewisham Council's directly elected Mayor Steve Bullock. In April 2004, 15 year old Manny Hawks became the country's first democratically elected Young Mayor, with an initial budget of £25,000 and supported by a Youth Advisors Group and a Young Citizens' Panel. Over 7,400 11-17 year olds voted in the election, and there were 40 candidates who participated at hustings in schools.

During his term of office, Manny helped set up the successful Youth Advisors Group, spoke at council meetings, represented Lewisham's young people at a range of local, regional and national conferences and events; and visited schools and youth projects.

Other partners provided extra funding to increase the young mayor's budget to £37,000. After meetings and consultation, Manny spent this on five projects, including a series of 'Feel Safe, Be Safe' workshops and the 'TxtBk' production of a guide to services for young people using phone texting as a main format.

Following the success of the scheme, the next Young Mayor was elected in October 2005.

The Kensington and Chelsea Youth Forum was set up in 2002 by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with strong involvement from young people right from the start. They decided how it would work, report and recruit, and established that the forum should provide opportunities for debate, information and participation in the development and improvement of services. The Forum has an annual budget of £12,000 to award to young people's projects, benefit the local community and promote equal opportunities. The 30 active members come from all walks of life and different ethnic backgrounds - including young carers, working adults and students.